


Of Unknown Origin

by boredandelusive



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, Avengers Tower, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Black Original Character, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Bwwm, F/M, Female Character of Color, Multi, Nephalem, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:54:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26964766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boredandelusive/pseuds/boredandelusive
Summary: Adaliya, the name of a woman who couldn't remember her life before the age of 12. Being through hell and back on Earth wasn't fun, especially as a black woman, but she made it, didn't she? Being emotionally unavailable and relationships weren't her way to live, it was something that stuck with her through thick and thin. She never had to worry about wanting to fall in love or growing old with someone, so why did two soldiers change her perspective?Working through SHIELD as its second-in-command, she had access to anything and everything, almost as if she was the director, but that job was still left to Nicholas Fury. As for her lifestyle, it began to change once tat Avengers operation started.
Relationships: Black Woman/White Man - Relationship, James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s), James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Original Female Character(s), Steve Rogers/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

Adaliya, a woman who doesn't have a family, raised by S.H.I.E.L.D. when she was 13 to be an agent, though she was originally raised to be an assassin. Running away from the same place that made her an assassin, Adaliya lived her own life outside of S.H.I.E.L.D., at least, that's the backstory she was given. She didn't know exactly how old she was, but she lived long enough to see empires rise and fall, enough to see her own bloodline begin and end.

Because of the lack of parental figures in life, she learned how to cook and clean by herself, learned how to raise herself. Even from the young age of 13, the only way Adaliya dressed herself was in the gothic fashion sense. Also, with her being an assassin, she kept a fairly medium-sized body build, though she hid her shape with baggy clothes.

She never understood what she was, albeit human or not. All she knew was how to control her powers, how to use them on other people, and how damaging they'd if they were used incorrectly. Standing proudly at 5'8", Adaliya looked more like she was a goddess in disguise, which was both a blessing and a curse. 

As for her physiology, she had a 38>28>43 body ratio with her bra size being 30G. She had a tail, one that sprouted at her lower back, two horns that curled like ram horns, and wings she kept in her back. She could hide everything, which was what she did through skin magic and tattoos. It wasn't everyday someone had actual transmutations that weren't human.

With her having the bottom hourglass figure she shaped herself to have, it was also one of her biggest insecurities. Usually, if it was an out-and-about day, she'd wear something baggy, knowing there was a strange effect she had of everyone she encountered. Wearing something tight would only occur when she was on mission, specifically an undercover mission.

With her eyes being piercing brown, just enough that they looked hazel in the sunlight and chocolate brown in the moonlight. Her skin was a milk chocolate brown, one that glistened in the moonlight and stood out in the sunshine. There was something about her, though she was physically nothing older than 23, that could catch anyone's eye.

Never understanding what she was, there was one reason why she felt as though she was cursed: she never aged past 23. Never understanding why nor how, it wasn't a question she wanted to ask herself. Her past was one of the many reasons she doubted the idea of finding out who and where she came from.


	2. Prologue

Adaliya, a girl who'd lived long enough to see empires rise and fall, a woman who fought battles that people hadn't seen. As a baby, there was never anyone to claim her, no one from earth, anyway. 

It was a rather fretful night, one full of heavy downpour and thunderous lightning that could've lasted for days. A woman, her face concealed by the cloak she wore to protect her identity, picked up on the whining cries of the baby in a blanket. 

Tracking the sounds of the crying was nearly impossible because of how overpowering the sounds of thunder were, as compared to the sounds of the baby crying. The masked woman placed her hand on the ground, hoping to feel the faint vibrations the infant was giving off, just enough to find it and protect it.

As the lightning grew nearer, so did the woman, until finally, she found the baby crying in an alleyway, only covered by sticks and wrapped in a blanket with a note beside it. Though the note was soaked from the oncoming rain, the words were slightly comprehensible for the woman to read. 

_To my dearest Adaliya, I'm deeply sorry I can't take care of you, I had to do this in order to protect you. I love you, my sweet child, and I hope that you live a life free of danger and despair. To whoever may find my child, please take care of her, nurture as though she was your own. If you cannpt already tell, she isn't human, and I hope you can help her find out exactly what she is._

It seemed that was all the note had on it, to which the woman hovered her hand over the note for three seconds, causing it to instantly dry. Picking it up from the ground, she put it in her pocket before picking the baby up. Almost immediately, the infant stopped crying while the woman rocked her, which formed a smile on the woman's face.

"Come on, Adaliya, let's get you home," keeping the child close to her body at all times, the woman quickly hurried towards the same portal that brought her to Earth. 

☪

As she arrived back to her home, Asgard, there were two guards that greeted her, to which they also noticed the little child she was holding in her hands. "Your Majesty, can I ask why you have a baby in your hands?"

"I don't know, something about her drew me to her, but I don't need this sort of information getting out into the wrong hands," having a stern tone of voice, both guards quickly nodded before moving out of the way.

"Yes, your Majesty," this was the first child within the kingdom, the first child between Freyja and Odin Borson. 

☪

As Frigga made her prescence known in the kingdom, Odin looked over to his wife, though confusion seeped in his eyes when he saw the child she was holding. "Leave us," were the first two words he commanded to his guards, to which they left instantly.

"Odin, there's something I should tell you," as if his brain was trying to deny the fact that Frigga was holding a newborn baby, he got up from his throne and slowly walked closer towards his wife.

"Why are you holding a baby?" He didn't sound mad, though he was curious as to why there was a sleeping child in Frigga's hands. "And where did you find it?"

"She was on earth, I don't know why, but it was almost like she was calling out to me," it was a strange sensation, when she could feel Adaliya call out to her. "I had Heimdall open the bridge to her general area, then I found her and came back here."

"What's her name?" It wasn't like they could leave a baby to fend for themselves, that wouldn't be safe, which meant it was up to them to raise her properly. Odin never opposed the thought of children, considering Thor and Loki were nothing older than 3-year-old children.

"Adaliya, her name is Adaliya. From what the note said, she's not human, I doubt she's Asgardian, which was probably the reason why she was left to die." Knowing that if someone knew she was on Asgard, the knowledge of her being could cause people to die, there was one way to go about this.

"Do you realize that there's a chance someone or something could be after her, right? If Thor or Loki find out about her... that's not a risk I'm wanting to take," Odin knew that the inch horns coming out of Adaliya's head wasn't a normal thing, which was the first clue she wasn't human or Asgardian.

"I know, I know, that's why I might know someone that can take care of her, teach her how to hide her physical abnormalities, and help her find out what she might be. As for now, we can't tell anyone else besides one another, maybe Heimdall, considering she's already seen what she looks like." This was the first time they've had to hide a child, one that wasn't Hela, but also one that wasn't their own.

☪

Later that night, Frigga wore her cloak that covered her face, this time having Adaliya wrapped onto her body, sleeping soundly. Knowing there was a chance that this would help Frigga keep an eye on Adaliya, she started to rush towards the village.

There were three places that came to mind: one of them being a home of a family Frigga had known about for a while, another one being a family just outside of the castle, and the final one being a home just far enough from the castle that no one would suspect them being the family of Adaliya.

Deciding to choose the family that was the servants, Frigga took the baby to the servants, where she knocked on the door. Getting no response from the first knock, Frigga knocked again, finally getting an answer. Immediately getting a response that time, the door opened, to which Frigga revealed her face. "It's important."

"Come in, then, please," the servant responded, moving out of the way to let Frigga inside. "Is there something you need, your Majesty?" The look of confusion in her eye set in when she saw the cooing baby in Frigga's arms, the one fast asleep.

"I've never asked this favor of anyone, yet I'm going to ask this of you," knowing the entire thing probably would end up in Adaliya being in a safe place, Frigga decided to take her chances. "Neither me nor Odin know what she is, but the chance that someone may be after her isn't a risk we want to take. And I know how much you yearn for children but are unable to have them."

"I understand," Frigga hesitantly handed Adaliya over to the servant, though there was still something she needed to know about the baby. "What's her name, your Majesty?" She didn't know what to call the baby girl in her arms, though she already had the gut instinct to protect her with her life.

"Adaliya, her name is Adaliya. There's this note, I want you to give it to her when she's old enough to understand. Erah, I understand if you want to stop working in the kingdom-" as Frigga was about to continue talking, Erah stopped her from saying anything else.

"I'd be more than willing to look after her and still work in the kingdom, your Majesty." It wouldn't be the easiest thing for her to do, especially because she had a feeling Frigga would still want to watch over her secretly. "On the high chance she has powers, I'm not able to understand Asgardian magic, I can't teach her."

"I can send two servants to drop off books here, books full of knowledge even beyond Asgardian limits." The wave of relief that washed over Erah was enough for her worries to be put to a halt. "I'd be more than willing to supply anything you need to raise her and keep her safe, my only request is that she not be known to everyone until she can control her abilities well."

"Yes, your Majesty," Frigga got up and gave Erah the note, soon leaving with the cloak over her head. 

☪

Fast-forwarding 12 years, Adaliya was at home while Erah was in the kingdom. Sitting on her bed and reading one of the books about otherworldly creatures, she finished reading the part about Trolls and was now onto demons. 

**'Demons are known to have two horns sprouting from their head, a tail stemming from their lower back, and two dragon-like wings sprouting from their back.'** Getting up from sitting on the bed, Adaliya walked over towards her vertical mirrors, checking what all she had. She had the two horns sprouting from her temples, her tail came out of her lower back, though there was something off: her wings. She didn't have two dragon-like wings, she had one that was made out of feathers.

 **'It's believed that demons have powers over darkness, death, and** **maleficient** **forces,'** both confusion and fear set in on her face, fear that she was a demon, but confusion on the part about the wings. **'Also being long forbidden, demons used to mate with angels to have near powerless children, also being absolute neutral beings.'**

Quickly flipping back to the Angel section of the book, Adaliya skimmed over the text until she found the one piece that correlates with the Demon section. **'A forbidden but unknown fact: angels and demons used to mate together to have nearly powerless children who were neutral beings. However, the knowledge of a living Nephalem would result in the creature being killed due to it being considered an abomination.'**

There was one last section she had to look for: the Nephalem section. When she flipped towards said section, there wasn't anything on the pages. "What...? It's blank?!" She needed to know about what she was, just enough that she could understand what she was. 

About to throw the book out of anger, words formed out of fresh ink appeared on the first page of the section. 'Who are you?' It sounded like the book had a consciousness, as if it were asking Adaliya the question. Quickly grabbing a pen, Adaliya wrote on the first page: 'My name is Adaliya.'

'Hello, Adaliya, what are you doing looking in this section of the book?' The knowledge that she was communicating with a book, it wasn't that surprising, but it wasn't common. Thinking of a response, she finally came up with one plausible enough: 'I have one angel wing and one demon wing, both horns and a halo. I need to see if I'm a Nephalem or not. Can I please have access to this part of the book?'

The ink from her words disappeared and was replaced with the pages of information about Nephalems. The first thing she read, the top of the page: **'** **Nephalems** **were known to be creatures of light and dark, the neutral beings between the** **beneficient** **and** **maleficient** **forces. Having powers from both their angelic and demonic parents, most** **Nephalems** **were more powerful than both their parents combined.'**

There wasn't more information past that, not until a circle appeared. 'Please put a drop of your blood within the circle to determine what type of Nephalem you are.' With that, Adaliya temporarily set the blood down to get a needle to prick herself in the finger with.

Coming back to the book, she stuck the needle into her thumb, then putting the drop of blood within the circle. The blood immediately disappeared before the rest of the page was about Transcendent Nephalems. **'Based on your blood,** **Adaliya** **, you are a transcendent Nephalem. This specific type of Nephalem has the power of all holy and demonic abilities, and their power is far higher than a deity.'**

As she sat down on the bed, she continued reading, hoping to find some sort of useful information about how to correctly use her powers. **'Believed to be the One Above All's most powerful creation, the other deities that helped to control the multiverse also helped to get rid of these creatures, as they saw them as a posable threat.'** Adaliya's heart _dropped,_ she didn't want to be something endangered, let alone killed because of how much power she holds.

 **'It is said that** **Nephalems** **have the** **abilties** **to hide their abnormalities, usually by tattoos and skin magic or illusion-work. The only ones who could see these creatures as their true appearance is deities, anyone that holds enough power to see through their illusions. As information states, there weren't any** **Nephalems** **within the nine realms until** **Adaliya** **came around.'** The one thing that gave the 12-year-old a feeling of unsettlement was the fact that her name was in the book.

Quickly closing it out of fear, Adaliya was hoping to read a different book, maybe one that wouldn't give her unsettling chills. This time, she managed to keep her abnormalities within her skin, which included her horns, her wings, and her tail.

☪

By nightfall, Erah was back home with Adaliya and Erah was reading one of Adaliya's favorite books: _As the Tale Goes_. It was a sstory about a young girl who desperately tried to fit in with society, though she was forced to be kept secret to avoid the discovery of her kind.

A knock at the door was the one thing that disrupted their peaceful night. "Mom, who do you think it is?" Because she was laying beside her mother, both of them sharing a blanket large enough to cover their bodies, Erah had to get up from being on the couch to walk over to the door.

"I don't know, sweetie, but you should go hide, remember what we talked about?" As Adaliya got up from being under the blanket, she quickly rushed to the closet to hide from whoever was coming to visit the two. 

"Don't come out of the closet unless it's Queen Frigga, yes, I know," stepping into the closet, Erah made sure Adaliya was out of sight before walking towards the door. An unnerving feeling ran down Erah's back before she opened the door, hoping to ignore and discard the feeling completely. 

"Can I help you?" With a calm and welcoming tone, Erah opened the door, though when her eyes adjusted to the sight in front of her, she couldn't help but feel nervous suddenly. "I'm sorry, I don't think I've seen you around, who are you?"

"Who I am isn't important, I know you've been harboring a child named Adaliya. If you give her to me, no one has to get hurt," his voice was deep, authoritarian, even. However, she knew better than to betray the Queen's orders of raising the child. 

"I have no idea what you're talking about," trying to keep a steady voice, Erah had a gut feeling of how this encounter would go, though she didn't want Adaliya to see it go down. "Please leave," trying to maintain a calm voice wasn't as easy as she'd expect, though it wasn't any easier when the man suddenly unsheathed his sword from his belt.

"I'm only going to give you another chance before I forcefully look for her myself: where is Adaliya?" Not giving another answer, the man sighed with bitter annoyance before stabbing Erah, making her body limp and her collapse to the floor. 

A scream, _the scream of a child_ , came from the closet, to which Adaliya quickly got out and attempted to run out of the house. The man, however, was faster, to which he stopped her from getting the chance to escape. "Y-You killed her...!" Untouched feelings, _raw emotions_ , all of these started to bubble up within the preteen.

"You're going to come with me, and if you try to fight back, I don't care how old you are, I will hurt you until you learn your lesson. Am I understood?" He sounded like a stern parent, though the tears falling from her eyes only fueled her untethered emotions. 

Light and Dark started spewing from her body and surrounded the man's body, easily wrapping around him before closing in on body. The pressure build-up around his body caused spontaneous combustion, to which blood splattered across the ground, walls, and ceiling.

As tears continued to rush from her eyes, she ran out of the house and towards the kingdom. Rushing past most of the servants, who had looks of confusion in their eyes, though Adaliya didn't care. She wasn't covered in blood, though the look on her face was enough to shock immediate worry to those who didn't know about the recent event.

"F-Frigga?" The place she rushed towards was the throne room, though it wasn't just Frigga in the room. There were two boys, both of them couldn't be older than 15 and Odin himself. Disregarding all caution about making sure her prescence wouldn't be known, Frigga noticed the puffy face and tears running down her cheeks.

"Adaliya, what's wrong?" The name stuck out to both of the teenagers, to which Frigga didn't care whether or not they'd notice the crying child. 

"A-A man came in, looking for me, h-he killed Erah," because of her state of panic, her words weren't coming out in full syllables. "I-I did something, I don't know what it was, but now he's gone and there's blood everywhere, and so I ran here. I-I can't be here anymore, everyone here might be in danger and I don't want anyone else to die because of me."

Talking a mile a minute was normal because of her panicked state, though Frigga understood every word of it, to which she looked over to everyone else in the throne room. "Give me a minute, I'll be right back," with a calm look on her face, she then looked back to Adaliya. "Follow me," knowing this must've been an urgent situation for someone to directly go after Adaliya was the main reason why she hoped leaving the girl to one of her servants would keep her out of harm's way.

☪

Riding a horse to the bifrost, Adaliya was trying to calm herself down, though she was still in a state a paranoia. "Frigga, where are we going?"

"You were right about one thing, Adaliya, there are people coming after you. To make sure they don't know who to go after and where you are, I'm going to have Heimdall send you to Earth. I also know that because of this sort of situation, remembering something this young would leave you traumatized." As they arrived, the horse stopped, to which Frigga dismounted first with Adaliya getting off second.

"What are you going to do?" With fear in her eyes, she looked towards Heimdall, who had a look of reassurance in his eyes. It was enough for Adaliya to start to feel safe again. 

"I'm going to erase your memory, when you get to earth, I can easily have Heimdall watch over you, help you if you need the assistance. I'm going to give you this," just as she was talking, Frigga pulled out a notebook with her name on the front page. "I had a friend help me make it, it has all of the information needed to help you figure out what you are and how your powers work."

Reluctantly accepting the book, Adaliya looked down to it before she looked back up to the adults again. "O-Okay, I'm ready," as a mother would, Frigga placed a kiss on her forehead, to which she then lightly nudged her to Heimdall. "Make sure she lands somewhere safe," as the portal opened up, Adaliya walked over to the entrance.

☪

It'd been one thousand, four hundred ninety-three years since Adaliya first arrived to earth with no knowledge of who she was besides her name. Currently, she had degrees in almost every field offered to people of color in the 1940s, though there wasn't much of a spectrum due to segregation.


	3. Chapter 3

Being in the SSR base, Adaliya was in the lab, preferably going over the chamber that would hold the first tester of the Super Soldier Serum. She could tell the tension in the room was thick, it didn't take a detective. She was a person of color working in the SSR where a bunch of white people worked, the tension in the room was enough to be sliced with a knife.

"Adaliya, can you come with me?" Given she did not know of where she was having to go, she got up from being underneath the chamber. Her clothes were: a brown pencil skirt, a white button-up blouse, and black tights so it wouldn't risk exposure.

"Where am I going, sir?" Looking at the man with confusion, he handed her the file with a bit of an attitude, which was to be expected from a white man to a black woman. Since there was no need for her to wear a hat, they didn't give her one, not like the other women who worked in the SSR.

"You're going to meet a kid and tell him that he's going to be tested for a serum that'll hopefully make him the perfect soldier. You're going to allow him to serve in the army both before and after the serum and take measurements to see how much has changed from before and after, understood?" 

"Yes sir," she was handed a file, to which she skimmed through it before walking out the front door to be awaited with a car. It seemed as though it was another day where she would have to deal with systematic oppression in hopes that it would change.

☪

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" The soldier who was in the room didn't say anything until Adaliya entered, to which he signaled for him to leave. Looking over his file one last time, she recognized one normal thing from soldier to soldier when it cam eto those who were applying.

"So, you want to go overseas and kill a bunch of Nazis, correct?" Because her head was buried in the file, Steve wasn't able to see what her face looked like, not exactly. 

"Pardon?" As Adaliya lowered the file from covering her face, she looked over to Steve, who she could tell immediately felt uncomfortable being in the same room as her. "Oh, you're..." he trailed off, though she picked up on his words immediately.

"A person of color, hence the reason you don't fully feel comfortable around me? Yeah, I get that a lot, what's new? Anywho, my name is Adaliya and I'm here to represent the Strategic Scientific Reserve," holding out a hand for him to shake, he reluctantly took it.

"Steve Rogers, where are you from?" Knowing she couldn't give an honest answer about her being older than she appeared, the only answer she could give was the one she could firstly think of.

"New Orleans, Louisiana, I'd been living there since I could remember, then I moved up here to join the SSR," sitting down in front of him, she noticed there was something odd about his file, something that caused her to skim over it again. "Where are you from, Rogers? New Haven, Paramus, or the five cities you went to in order to take five different military tests?"

"I'm sure that must be the wrong file-" though he was trying to think of an excuse as to why he'd taken five different tests in five different cities. Without having to focus much, she peered into his memories and thoughts, to which she knew he was lying, even then.

"It's not the exams that peeked my insterest, however, it's the five cities. You still never told me if you wanted to kill nazis, however," if it wasn't already obvious, she needed an answer before she could proceed. She wanted to see where, _exactly_ , he stood when it came to the war.

"I don't believe in killing, however, I don't like bullies, no matter where they come from," shifting in his seat, Adaliya set the file down beside her. The look of uncomfortableness only somewhat grew, thoug she decided to ask the question that only she could think of.

"Do you think I'm a bully?" Before he could try to think of a way to counteract her statement, she let out an innocent chuckle. "I could sense the feeling of you being uncomfortable around me, trust me, I get it. Now, contrary to popular belief, I'm not bad, but due to systematic oppression, most look at someone like me and think I'm a bad guy, so I'm going to ask again: do you think I'm a buddy?"

"No, I don't," regardless of what words came from his mouth, she could see that he was tolerable of people of color, he just wasn't fully accepting of them because of how society treated them. For now, that was enough to convince her to continue to get to know him.

"Good, because you know there are plenty of muscular men strapping the war, you're thinking they need the "little guys," right?" she wanted to see exactly where he stood on everything, she wanted to find where his morals lie.

"...Right, what do you do, exactly?" Though he was still guarded around her, it was only best he try to get to know her, hopefully to the point where he doesn't feel uncomfortable around her anymore.

"Engineer, scientist, basically anything on the spectrum of knowledge, I know how to do. I see the potential in mankind in hopes of changing and shaping to better motivate the future. I believe that's the same reason I'm here right now. The SSR sees potential in you, Steve," getting up and grabbing the file, she signaled for him to follow.

"So how is this going to work?" He didn't know where her words were leading to, though his hopes got up when she opened his file and grabbed a stamp, specifically the 1A stamp.

"I'm giving you a chance, only one, don't mess it up, Rogers," stamping the box, she moved the file to where it was deadset in front of him. For a glimpse before she turned away, she could see the light of hope in his eyes.

☪

It'd been a few days, now was the day they were going to inject Steve Rogers with the serum, though he still had to arrive, first. As for her role, she was there to monitor and make sure the amount of electricity used to keep the vita rays was enough to keep it going for as long as needed.

When the doors first opened up, everyone looked to see Peggy Carter coming in with Steve Rogers. The first thing his eyes noticed was the chamber in the middle of the room, though everyone's eyes were still glued to him, even when he was coming down the stairs.

The laboratory size as compared to the antique store size was far larger, which was a piece of information that shocked him. While the technicians operate the machinery, the engineers operate the monitors, meaning Adaliya was working on the machinery.

Tracking his eyeline, she noticed he was looking at the "Rebirth Device," as Howard Stark would call it. Because of the light in the room, it made it look like the metal was shining, though that wasn't the only thing his eyes were looking at. 

The pneumatic panels fold, to which the six vita-ray reactors loom behind. Doctor erskine was rushing around the lab, making sure everything was prepared for the people watching the vita-ray transfer. Listening into the observatory room, she watched the colonel greet the senator.

"Senator Brandt, glad you could make it," since the colonel needed the power from half of Brooklyn, it was only fair he let the senator see the reasoning behind the need for excess electricity. 

"Why am I in Brooklyn?" Was the first question he decided to ask, though the colonel pointed down to the machine. "What is that thingm is it some sort of miracle healer?"

"That, sir, is the reason why we need the amount of electricity we need. However, if you would have provided the generator I'd requested," he trailed off, knowing the city wouldn't need to drain as much as would.

"Lots of people are askingg for funds, Colonel. Seaking of, this is Clem-..." he always had a problem when it came to pronouncing his name, which was why he'd let the man speak for himself.

"Fred Clemon, State Department. If this project of yours comes through, we'd like to make sure this is used for something far wider than just headlines," as he eyed Brandt, Adaliya couldn't help but notice something off about him. She could tell he was lying, though she didn't know whether or not saying anything about it would be believed by anyone listening.

When senator Brandt noticed Steve's abnormally skinny body, he couldn't help but make the remark, "somebody get this kid a sandwich." Watching as the boy got into the machine, Adaliya walked over to where he was, this time having a needle in hand.

Injecting it into his left arm, he let out a shaky breath before looking towards Adaliya. "That wasn't so bad," though the two weren't the only ones at the machine, Erskine grew an immediate smirk on his face.

"That was penicillin," then moving away from the machine, he looked over to Howard. "How are the levels, mister Stark?" Knowing it was a normal feeling of being overlooked, she backed away from the device and went over to the machinery.

"Coils are at peak, levels are at 100%, and though Brooklyn may experience a blackout, we're more than ready to begin." He wasn't sure how much power would be needed, though he signaled to Erskine to make the introductory speech to those in the observatory panel.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we don't take a step forward to annhilation, but a step forward to the path of peace," speaking into the intercom that relayed his message to the observatory panel, it was evident in Brandt's eyes that he was skeptical. "We'll begin witha series of micro-injections to the subjects major muscle groups."

The two pads that hovered over his arms were then against his skin with 2 centimeter triangular needles. Two of the engineers grabbed six of the eight vitals from the holders and placed them into the holders. "We will begin the transfer of the serum, and to control the growth processed, he will be saturated with vita rays."

As Erskine was speaking, the vials emptied into Steve's bloodstream, the machine then positioning itself vertically and enclosed around the boy. The vita rays started to sink in, to which the percentage would be known by Howard's commentary. "10%," slowly turning the wheel, the electricity started to drain quicker.

"20%," Steve's face grew tense, while inside the chamber, the orange light grew rapidly. The techicians put on the glasses while Peggy crossed her fingers in hopes it would work. "30%," Steve's eyes shut in pain as the light grows, though Erskine looks over to Howard for a general check on his vitals.

Continuing to increase the voltage, the power levels were starting to drop. "There's not enough to let it continue," Howard noticed the humming of the generator shutting off. Out of concern, everyone started looking around in hopes someone could come up with something.

"Yes, there is, keep letting it run," Adaliya looked over to Stark, who had a look of confusion on his face, though that was just before she left the room to go to the generators. Taking off her lab coat, she rubbed her hands together before placing it on the generator, giving it a jolt of electricity.

Her powers weren't something known in the SSR, given no one cared or paid enough attention to her to notice. Staying in the room for the next three minutes, she could feel the generator power itself down, meaning they were done and she didn't have to keep supplying electricity to the generator.

Rushing back to the lab, she noticed Steve Rogers looking different, he was bigger, taller, and more muscly than before. "Listen, Lia, I don't know what you did, but whatever it was, it worked," Howard had a look of accomplishment in his eyes, which everyone also noticed that her absence helped keep the power going. "What did you do, exactly?"

"Don't question it, trust the process, and my name is Adaliya," just as she finished talking, there was an explosion in the observatory room, though no one was in there. "Heinz Kruger, I thought I recognized you," just as she recognized him, he quickly took the final two vials and started to rush towards the door, though not before he shot Abram Erskine in the chest twice.


	4. Chapter 4

It'd been several decades, meaning the year was now 2012. Adaliya was a level 9 within S.H.I.E.L.D., and though everyone was aware of how old she was, at least, a rough estimate, they knew everything she'd been through since the founding of shield.

Currently, Adaliya was on an undercover mission, one where she wore a golden dress hoping to catch the eye of a criminal. It was a fairly basic mission, yes, but it was one that allowed for her to get to know the plans behind the next underground meeting.

As she was getting ready, her phone rang, which she held her hand out, causing the phone to fly into her hand. Looking at the caller ID, she noticed it was Agent Coulson, one of the people who'd geeked out almost every time she and him talked, even if it was subtle.

"Agent Adaliya, we need you to come in," his tone and voice were serious, which was contradictory to how he would usually act. Quickly hooking up her bluetooth headphones to her phone, she set the phone down and put her thigh holster in the case.

"Has something happened?" With confusion seeping into her voice, she looked from the mirror towards the case, hoping there would be a reason why she couldn't go on the mission tonight. 

"There's been a breach at Project Pegasus, the facilities are gone. It's a level seven mission, this one takes precedence," knowing the moment he said level seven, she knew it was a call from Director Fury himself. "There's going to be a quinjet at your location on the rooftop, it'll take you to the helicarrier."

"Alright, whichever agent is next to be on this mission, I'll send them everything I know," ending the call from Coulson's side, Adaliya took off her headphones and started to pack everything back into the suitcase. She knew that there was a chance she'd be called in, especially because of that odd feeling of cosmic energy that surged through her, it didn't feel pleasant and she wanted to know more about it.

Taking off the golden dress, she put the spaghetti straps onto the hanger and folded it to where the hanger was on the top. Putting on an oversized shirt and baggy shield pants, she grabbed everything of hers and put it into the suitcase before sitting on the top and closing it.

Taking the stairs to the rooftop, she watched as the quinjet uncloaked before the hangar door opened, allowing for her to come in. "We're going to the helicarrier, right?" Knowing it was the middle of the night, it would take them a few hours to get from Japan to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

"Correct, we'll be on this flight for a few hours, so go ahead and get comfortable," what the pilot meant by that was that she could take a nap, knowing she had to purposefully mess up her sleeping schedule to attend this meeting.

☪

"Agent Adaliya, we're here," a knudge to her leg was what woke her up, to which she looked to her right to see the hangar door opening. "There should be coffee in the break room, if you need it," since she was the oldest shield agent, everyone had a general idea of how she worked, at least, at either the hub or the triskelion.

"Thank you," getting out of the quinjet, she noticed Natasha walking with a brunette man in a brown suit and a dirty blonde mane with a brown leather jacket. Givivng one another the side eye look was how they greeted each other. 

Knowing she couldn't show her face to Steve just yet, she walked into the meeting room as the Helicarrier was lifting itself off the ocean's surface. When she walked in, one of the security agents showed her to the lab, the other place she knew how to work. 

There was still one more thing she needed: the data transfer from the lab would help her start to find anything remotely close to the surge of cosmic energy like the one from last night. Setting her jacket down, she walked out of the lab room and towards the cockpit, not caring the Phil was with Steve.

"Coulson," that was the way her and Coulson greeted one another, along with her asking some sort of question. "Is the coffee ready? You know I had to mess up my sleep schedule for it," the second her voice left her lips, Steve looked over to the source, which caused his eyes to widen in realization.

"Adaliya?" There it was, the awkward moment that would have to happen one way or another. She could see in his mind that there were flashes of the 1940s, especially the times that it was just him and her talking.

"Yo," without thinking about who called her name, she looked up to see Steve looking at her with disbelief, though a smile formed on her face instantly. "You thought you were the only one that's old?" Knowing she was the only agent that lived long enough since the creation of shield who wasn't close to their ending times, it was only fair the look of disbelief be in his eyes.

"Just how old are you?" It was a reasonable question, though Adaliya wouldn't answer that, knowing she didn't know how old she really was. Instead, she just chuckled and shrugged, more like she didn't have a care for the question.

"However old you think I am," walking past the two men, she walked into the cockpit, where the invitation for data sharing flickered on the screen. Quickly accepting it, she proceeded to walk back towards the lab with her focus on the lab. "Don't take a guess, it's probably going to be wrong."

Just as she got towards the lab, she noticed Bruce working on something, though she paid no attention to him. "From what I've heard, you were there when Rogers took the super soldier serum, right?" It was his way of making small conversation, though Adaliya chuckled.

"Yep, and when the power was about to go out, I supercharged it and kept it steady until it was over." Saying that fact as if it was nothing, Bruce stopped what he was doing and looked over to Adaliya, who turned to face him with the tablet in his hand.

"How did you keep electricity going if it was close to running out?" There it was, the look of confusion and the mind of science running at the same time. It seemed as though he was trying to figure out how she was able to generate her own electricity.

"Simple: I have powers, if it's not already obvious, I'm not human. It would only make sense that someone who's not human have some sortof power." Though she tried to figure out what she was, the only clue she has was a book with her name on the cover.

"If you're not human, what are you?" That was the question even she oculdn't answer, though there was a ping on her screen, one that had Loki's facial match at 80%. 

"That's a good question, though I'm not able to answer that at the moment," setting the tablet down, she quickly swiped before walking out of the lab and towards the cockpit. 

"Adaliya, Rogers, you're up," knowing she didn't have a superhero costume, she just decided to go in her SHIELD uniform, which meant she had to put it on. Unfortunately, Adaliya got used to having baggy clothes, there was even a bet about what her actual body shape was. only because she always had something baggy.

☪

By the time the two arrived, everyone was kneeling and being surrounded by 5 Lokis, one of them being only the real one. With a simple flick of her hand, she got rid of the four illusion versions while not being in the crowd.

Steve was waiting in the quinjet, though Adaliya was on the ground. Using illusions to slowly diminish people out of Loki's sight, she hid in the crowd knowing Loki was too busy with his ego to pay attention to the few missing people.

'If I tap you while he's talking, you're under an illusion and you need to get out of here,' that was a one-way telepathic message from Adaliya to the crowd, though it didn't include Loki. Sneaking into the crowd with invisibility, she started tapping people's shoulders, signaling for them to go.

Since it was an illusion, he couldn't see when the people started running, though they ran for their lives. By the time she tapped majority of the crowd, Loki aimed a blast at an elderly man, though Steve dropped down from the quinjet and deflected it with his shield, which made Adaliya lose her concentration.

The illusion of half the crowd dropped while the other half ran out of fear they'd get hit from the blasts. While Steve was fighting Loki, however, Adaliya used it to rush inside, not expecting the site she saw. It was a man, an elderly man with a device that removed his left eyeball, and by the looks of it, he wasn't alive anymore.

Taking the eyeball from the device, she popped it back in, which allowed her to focus on the neurons that originally connected to his eyeball. As for the blood that spilled, miniscule threads of energy sprouted from her fingers, those were focused on the neurons while the blood started to rush back into his body through his eye first.

As the last neuron was put back in place, Adaliya moved his shirt out of the way before rubbing her hands together, allowing her electricity to charge enough to get his heart beating. As she placed her hands at the charging areas, she sent a voltage before moving out of the way, to which the man gasped for air.

Checking his eye was his first concern, though confusion was the next emotion he felt when he realized he was alive and there wasn't any blood around him. Though Adaliya couldn't speak German, she nodded before pointing for him to escape out the side of the building.

Without hesitation, he left immediately, meaning Adaliya was left to step outside. The first thing she was greeted with was Loki surrendering and Steve and Iron-Man standing over him. "What were you doing in there?" Knowing Steve watched her rush in, he didn't understand why she rushed in and took her time.

"The guy who he..." she started before flicking Loki in the crown of his head, "got a holographic eyeball from was the man I saved." Watching the confusion seep into Loki's eyes, he quickly glanced towards her in confusion.

"I thought he was dead, that's the outcome of bleeding from the loss of an eye," pulling him to his feet, Adaliya started to walk him to the quinjet, where she immediately tied him to one of the seats.

"I know, but I brought him back," the confusion in his eye only grew, though he had a suspicion that he'd recognized her, he just couldn't put the face with anyone he'd met. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me, Loki, including what all I'm capable of."

☪

As everyone loaded up into the quinjet, she sat on the seat across from him, making sure there wasn't a chance for him to escape. Steve and Natasha, on the other hand, were having a conversation.

"What all does SHIELD know about Adaliya?" Since he was trying to piece together how she looked alive and well after almost 70 years, it only seemed necessary for him to ask.

"From what she said when she first introduced herself: she's old, no one knows how old she is, exactly, and that she has a lot of power. There have been photographs of her dating back to the 1920s until now, though she won't tell us how old she is, mostly because people think she doesn't know her age."

"And what about her species? What is she?" Since it was evident she wasn't human because of all the times she's been in photos, no one knew what she was, just that she wasn't human. Her very existence mind-boggled Steve, and though the times from the 40s to now had changed, he was still having to get used to being around colored people, it was normal.

"No one but her knows, she's been very seclusive about what she is, and many agents have let it slide." Just as she was talking, there were lightning streaks dancing across the sky, which Adaliya could see made Loki slightly on edge.

"What, don't tell me you're scared of a little lightning," trying to use that to see if he'd admit his fear, his words were contradictory to what she'd thought he'd say.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," the second he said those words, it sounded like someone landed on the roof of the quinjet.


	5. Chapter 5

Tony put his helmet on and opened the hangar door, though there was a man with a billowing red cape and greyish black armor that landed on the door. Iron-Man charged up a blast, though he was flung back by a hammer to his chest. The man, without second thought, grabbed Loki by the throat and swung the hammer twice before flying away from the quinjet.

Tony regained his footing, though it was clear to Steve he didn't have a plan. "Now there's that guy," it was unmistakable by Tony's voice that the situation annoyed him. 

"Another Asgardian?" The name wasn't familiar to Adaliya, though it felt like it should be. Brushing off the feeling, she whiffled her head and focused back on the problem at hand. 

"Is that guy a friendly?" Knowing the answer wasn't exactly clear, both Natasha and Adaliya shrugged, though Nat was more focused on flying. "Do you have a plan of attack?" Seeing someone leave recklessly was the reason Steve blamed Bucky's death on himself.

"I have a plan: attack," without another word, Tony flew out of the quinjet and after the man with the hostage. Steve grabbed one of the parachutes and started to strap it onto his legs and torso.

"I'd sit this one out, cap," Nat glanced back to Steve, who was still putting the parachute on. "These people come from legends, they're basically gods," glancing back towards him again, she flicked two switches, one for autopilot and the other one for stabilizing the quinjet at the specific altitude it's been flying.

"I don't know how I can, and there's only one God, ma'am. I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that," holsting his shield onto his arm, he jumped out of the plane, leaving Adaliya, Nat, and the other pilot.

"You might be the only one who could break this up, you need to get down there and talk some sense into them," Nat was one of the few people who knew Adaliya had powers, which was why Nat knew if she talked to them, she could get them back to the helicarrier.

"Seems like I always have to clean up men's messes," without grabbing a parachute, she jumped out of the quinjet.

☪

"Hey! That's enough," Cap threw his shield at the two men to get their attention, which works, luckily. Adaliya was on the rock where Loki was, however, having a feeling he would try to plot his escape.

As he got up, he stopped in his tracked when he saw Adaliya standing in front of him. "You can't possibly think you can get in the way of inevitable glory?" Chuckling, he started to walk away from her, though she placed one hand on his chest, stopping him from going further.

"Inevitable my ass, you're not going anywhere, Laufeyson," the surname fell from her lips before she realized what she'd said. Loki's eyes widened immediately, knowing there shouldn't have been a way for a mere _mortal_ to know who his true heritage is.

"How do you know that name?" She could feel his anxiety grow, but he was trying to hide the knowledge of him having anxiety with him having power. Roughly grabbing her by the neck, he pushed her against the wall while the look in his eye of demanding an answer only grew. _"How do you know that name?"_

Adaliya, however, couldn't help but smirk, though she wrapped one of her hands around his wrist to pry his hand off her neck. "Because I know everything about you, Loki. I know how you look, I know how you act, I've got everything I need to make sure your Asgardian justice leaves you in the cell to rot." 

He wasn't aware of what she was, which was a good thing, though he could feel both maleficient and beneficient energy radiating from her body. "And how would you know anything about me? You're nothing more than an ant under my boot."

"Because my name is _fucking_ Adaliya, I've seen your memories, _all of them_ , if you really think you can escape either Asgard or Earth, you must be dumber than I thought." Her movements were swift and quick, Loki hadn't realized he was pinned against the rock behind him with one of her hands around his throat. "Now, you are going to stay here like a _good boy_ and you're going to come with me into a cell, understand?"

His breathing unconsciously picked up, though a smirk formed on his face. Maybe it was his admiration for her boldness, but he didn't refuse. "Ooh, yes ma'am," though it was in a teasing manner, he was being serious. 

Grabbing him by the collar, she whistled to the boys below her, which they looked up toward her in an instant. "Come on, we've got places to go, and quite frankly, we don't have that much time," because it was the night time, no one could really see what she looked like, which included her fire.

However, something in the back of Loki's mind, something about Adaliya was familiar, he didn't know what it was, but he wanted to find out before he would take over the world.

☪

When they docked ono the helicarrier, a dozen guards were assigned to walk Loki to his cell, where Agent Fury greeted him. "In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, even scratch that glass, 30000 feet straight down in a steel trap, you get how that works?" The ground beneath the trap opened up, causing sudden wind to rush up. "Ant," he gesture to Loki, then to the tablets. "Boot."

Instead of being frightened, Loki chuckled and backed away from the door. "It's an impressive cage, not built, I think, for me." Looking over to the security camera within the cage, he had a confident smirk on his face.

"It's built for something a lot stronger than you," Nick knew to play his words right, though Loki still knew about Hulk, which most didn't think it was possible for Earthly news to travel outside the galaxy. 

"Oh, I've heard. The mindless beast who makes play he's still a man," with those words, Adaliya walked into the room with Tony, Steve, Nat, and Thor. "How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk peace yet you kill because it's fun. You have made me _very_ desperate, and you might not be glad that you did," stepping closer to his cage, Fury kept his words at a serious and steady stream.

Ooh, it burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, and to have power, _unlimited power,_ and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? Than then to be reminded what real power is," he was in a gloating mood, that much was obvious.

"Let me know if "real power" wants a magazine, or something," walking away from the cell, Director Fury closed the door and proceeded to go to his office. 

☪

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" It was clear that Bruce was uncomfortable, especially because Loki mentioned him and the first time he arrived, Loki wouldn't stop eyeing him down.

"Loki's gonna drag this out, so Thor, what's his play?" Once the footage went off, Steve looked towards Thor in hopes he had an idea of what to do.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known, and he means to lead them against your people of Earth. They'll give him Earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." The whole 'outer space' thing was a somewhat weird topic for Steve to be in, though he was starting to adjust.

"An army from outer space?" Though there was disbelief in his voice, it was a serious matter. During this time, Adaliya was in her quarters changing from her uniform to baggy clothing. Once she met up with the group, she sat down between Nat and Steve.

"So, he's building another portal, that must be what he needs Selvig for," Bruce assumed that because of Selvig's knowledge, he was useful to Loki in that sense alone. 

"Selvig?" It was clear that Thor didn't know Loki had Selvig on his side, which would explain his raw reaction.

"He's an astrophysicist," Bruce didn't know whether or not Thor knows him, though he did know him, he met him last year.

"And a friend," because of his specification, she could see how much more of a difference it made that he'd been twisted by Loki's sceptre.

"Loki has them under some sort of spell, both him and one of our own," the disappointment in her eyes and voice was clear, but now there was the issue of why he willingly came with them.

"My question is: why did he come with us willingly, and what's his plan if he can't lead an army from here?" Steve glanced around the room, specifically to the others.

"The thing about him coming willingly is that I forced him here, but I bed that if you give me five minutes alone with him, I might be able to figure out what he's trying to do," getting up from the chair, she was stopped by Thor's words.

"You plan to manipulate my brother?" He sounded more like he was against the idea, though Adaliya nodded without caring for his opinion for this situation. "How unethical must you be to pull that off?"

"Oh, Thor," her chuckles came out with a sadistic tone, to which she crossed her arms. "It's only unethical if I make it unethical," walking away from the group, she started to walk towards the detention center.

☪

When she'd gotten there, Loki was sitting on the bench, as if he was waiting for her. "You thought you could sneak up on me, of all people?"

"I honesrlt don't care if you did or didn't notice my prescence, Loki, because we still would've had this talk, regardless of what's going on. So, why don't we have a little chat, hm?" Her tone suggested she had control over the situation, which was true, for the most part.

"Oh, absolutely. See, I remember you, now, _Adaliya._ You were nothing more than a twelve-year-old girl in a panic because, if I can recall correctly, you killed the person who killed your caretaker." As if he was expecting some sort of heartfelt reaction, Adaliya looked emotionless when he tried using that information against her.

"Okay, so? If I did that while I was only twelve, imagine what I could do now. I don't think you realize that I don't remember anything from the age of twelve and up. Call it luck, call it hope, I don't care," stepping closer ot the glass, Adaliya noticed Loki's eyes grow wide.

"I also know what you are, see, though you may not remember it, I do. When you were twelve and were crying because you killed someone who killed your mother, you had horns, demon horns. You tried hiding it behind a simple illusion, though I saw through it, your powers are weak and sloppy, nothing compared to my own."

"Because you're a king, right? You think that, because you have to the chance to rule Earth, you can?" Knowingly mocking the tone, Loki slowly walked towards the glass with a threatening look in his eyes. "Listen, I don't know if you have to hear it until your ears bleed: Earth is not your place to rule."

"You think your words have some sort of effect on me? Are you expecting me to be scared?" With a playful smirk on his face, Adaliya stepped closer to the glass, knowing there were points to prove with what contradicted his statements.

"I mean, they had enough of an effect for you to be standing inside the cage, don't they? If I wanted to scare you," she started, pulling out a revolver, a glowing revolver specifically. "I would've played Russian Roulette with your reproductive system."

"And you expect mere human bullets to make me crawl into a fearful state?" Scoffing at her attempt, she put the gun to her hand, to which it left a hole in the center. 

"Seem I'm not human, and even these bullets can hurt me. Now, that's one," pulling out another bullet from her jacket, she loaded it into the revolver and spun it. Her hand, on another matter, started to heal itself, given she was using the light in the room to act as a healing aid. "Do you want to count to see how many it takes before you admit what you're doing here?"


	6. Chapter 6

"She's not serious, is she?" From those watching her interrogate Loki; Steve, Tony, Bruce, or Thor didn't know about her tactics. 

"This is how she works as an interrogator, it's always worked, it may even work on him," both Hill and Nat simply shrugged it off, though they were still watching the footage. Thor was quick to rush towards the area, though Nat interjected him. "Let her do what she needs to do, don't interrupt."

☪

"Are you really attempting to scare me with your Earthly tactics?" Still trying to keep his composure, Adaliya flicked two fingers upward, which bound him in chains of darkness, rendering him immobile. 

Opening the door to his cell, she stepped inside and proceeded to close it behind her. "I don't care if you do or don't get scared, I'm going to get the information out of you by any means necessary." Taking another look at the chamber, she spun it and closed her eyes before snapping it back into the barrel. 

Opening her eyes, she aimed the barrel at her face and trailed it down towards the dip of his V-Line. "You can't possibly be serious," she knew he was trying to keep his composure, though it was failing desperately, his microexpressions proved it.

"Let me set this into your perspective: there have been many who weren't as lucky, the first shot being their only one. This can either go one of two ways: either you tell me what I need to know, or you're going to have to get a nurse, understand?" Spinning the revolver on her finger, she played with one of her braids.

"You're mad, thinking this sort of thing would work on me," now his only version of defense was his words, though she could see through it. Panic started to seep into his voice and facial expressions, though she didn't care. Aiming the revolver back at the dip of his V-line, she chuckled.

Ignoring his sentence, she proceeded to ask, "why are you here?" Any form of expression on her face instantly vanished. When he stayed silent, she cocked the gun and kept her arm steady, though her right eyebrow lifted. "Giving me the silent treatment? That hurts."

"I don't answer to you," as he finished his sentence, she pulled the trigger, which caused him to flinch. Another giggle left her body, to which she closed her eyes for a second before opening them again. This time, they were pitch black, which sent him into a paralyzed state of shock.

"Why are you here?" Since that wasn't the answer she was looking for, she knew to try again, making sure her point was getting across. "You have five chances left, and one of those chances might hurt you permanently."

"You're bloody insane," to try to play off his nervousness, he scoffed, though she pulled the trigger again, nothing coming out. 

"I'm insane when I want to be, Loki. Now, you have four shots left with one bullet still in the chamber. Give me the answers I'm looking for and you won't have to deal with an incorrect circumcision. Why are you here?" Tilting her head, Adaliya had a bloodcurdling look in her eyes, one that proved she was being serious.

"That creature, the beast you brought on the ship, I plan to use him for my escape," chuckling, she moved the gun away from being aimed at his genitals and towards her hand. Shooting the rest of the rounds, it was the next one that left a hole in her hand. "You were being serious?!" Adaliya couldn't help but giggle, looking at her hand before looking at Loki. 

"Of course I was, now be a good little boy and stay in your cell," opening the cell door when she was close, she walked out before closing it behind her. "And thank you, Loki, for your cooperation," as she was about to walk out, he slammed his fist against the glass.

"I will come for you, and when I do, it'll be your dying breath," he had a menacing look in his eye, that much was true. She didn't know whether or not to believe that, especially because it looked like he was truly wanting to go after her specifically.

"I'll be waiting, if you can find a way to kill me," because Adaliya was old, she'd lived through everything from 500 AD to now. The one thing she wanted now was to grow old and wither away, at least, if it were possible.

☪

When she regrouped with the others, Thor had a look of annoyance. "Do you find it a game to play with my brother like that?" He sounded aggressive, to which Adaliya chuckled before adjusting the hand that was shot. It looked fine, just the way it was before she shot it.

"When it comes to the people I interrogate, sometimes I look at it like a game. Even then, that encounter was pure pressure, and _I live for it._ Do you realize how classic it is when someone says "I'm coming after you," as if I hadn't heard that a thousand times?" As she was going to sit down, there was one thing that made her look at Thor odd. "I know momma taught me to not play with food, but he's just a little doll that, if I hit him in the right place, I get the answers I want."

"You really have gone mad, haven't you?" Instead of immediately defending her case, she tilted her head down and looked at him with her piercing brown eyes, those that had something hidden behind them. Walking closer to the god, her eyes glossed over with a demonic black color.

"Nope, I'm just really old with no way to die and very little sanity." Backing away from him a tad, her eyes returned to normal before facing the rest of the group. "Anyway, you said something about Barton, did you not?"

☪

By the next day, Adaliya was in the lab with Tony and Bruce, not paying them any mind, not until Fury entered the room with an unknown look. "What are you doing, mister Stark?" It was as though he knew something she didn't, but as far as rankings go, she couldn't pay attention to it.

"Funny, I could've asked you the same thing," sitting on the edge of the table, he purposefully dangled his legs over the edge. With Bruce standing near Tony, Tony had a general idea that Adaliya knew about what was going on. "And you, missy, you didn't say anything about it."

"I'm not contractually obligated to tell you shit about shield, bucko, so I didn't say anything. That's above my paygrade, so don't look at me when you find out something about Phase 2." It wasn't that she woke up on the wrong side of the bed, it was that there was no coffee, which made her cranky.

"I didn't mention anything about Phase 2, but since we're on that topic, why don't you say what it is?" Quickly shaking her head, she went back to the screen, though Thor, Nat, and Steve joined in the room. "Now you're being secretive?"

"Tony, there are a lot of things you don't know about me, even shield doesn't know about me. This is just official business, yes, I'm being secretive." As she looked back to the tablet, there was the sound of something heavy being set onto a metal table, because it made Adaliya jump suddenly.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD using the cube to make weapons, the same thing Schmidt used in the fourties," Steve went snooping places he shouldn't have gone looking, of course. It wasn't shocking, though she still wanted to see where this would go.

"Rogers, we gathered everything on the Tesseract. This doesn't mean that we're-" though Fury was about to continue, Tony turned the glass screen to where it showed Phase 2 with a 3D outline of the tesseract.

"I'm sorry, Nick, What were you lying?" At this point, it seemed Fury was under fire from both Tony and Steve, though there was a bit of suspicion around Adaliya not saying anything. "And don't pretend to go silent now, Adaliya."

Instead of saying anything, she turned her head to the rest of the group and put a finger over her mouth, showing she was going to keep quiet. "I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed one bit," it was clear Steve was disappointed, she didn't have to look at him to see it.

"Did you know about this?" That was Bruce's question to Nat, to which she deflected her answer with another statement.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from the environment, doctor?" Nat was trying her best to make sure Bruce wouldn't go green and take the helicarrier out of the sky.

"I was in Calcutta, I was very well removed," though he was standing his ground, Bruce still sounded somewhat shaky.

"Loki's manipulating you," Nat was trying to get him to see reason for him getting off of the plane, though it seemed he didn't want to cooperate.

"And what have you been doing exactly?" Yet another thing that Nat couldn't defend herself with, by now, it was starting to become some sort of habit.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes to you, now did you?" Gently referring to the encounter between Natasha and Bruce, he chucked before remembering one thing.

"Yeah, and I'm not leaving and suddenly everyone gets a little twitchy. I want to know why SHIELD is planning to use the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction, and also if Adaliya knew about it because she's been awfully quiet." Knowing that her being mentioned in this conversation, it wouldn't get anywhere.

"Because of her and him," first Nick pointed at Adaliya before pointing at Thor, which caught her attention and caused her to turn around.

"Me?" Thor was the first one to ask the question, to which Nick looked at him with the good eye he had. 

"Last year, earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. Learning that we're not only alone, but we're hopelessly out-gunned? This is just to make sure if another person attacked our planet, our defense wouldn't be absolute shit."

"And about me?" Were the only three words she planned to say for the rest of the time she was in here. She didn't wan to get roped into business she wasn't originally in, not until everyone kept mentioning her at one point or another.

"We have evidence that you've walked the earth for over a thousand years, almost fifteen hundred years total, which places your age near Thor's. No one knows what you are because you won't say anything about what you are, and we don't know if you're the only one of your kind out there."

Sudden flashes of childhood filled her mind, something she couldn't drag her focus away from.

☪ _  
_

_Quickly flipping back to the Angel section of the book, Adaliya skimmed over the text until she found the one piece that correlates with the Demon section. **'A forbidden but unknown fact: angels and demons used to mate together to have nearly powerless children who were neutral beings. However, the knowledge of a living Nephalem would result in the creature being killed due to it being considered an abomination.'**_

_There was one last section she had to look for: the Nephalem section. When she flipped towards said section, there wasn't anything on the pages. "What...? It's blank?!" She needed to know about what she was, just enough that she could understand what she was._

_About to throw the book out of anger, words formed out of fresh ink appeared on the first page of the section. 'Who are you?' It sounded like the book had a consciousness, as if it were asking Adaliya the question. Quickly grabbing a pen, Adaliya wrote on the first page: 'My name is Adaliya.'_

_'Hello, Adaliya, what are you doing looking in this section of the book?' The knowledge that she was communicating with a book, it wasn't that surprising, but it wasn't common. Thinking of a response, she finally came up with one plausible enough: 'I have one angel wing and one demon wing, both horns and a halo. I need to see if I'm a Nephalem or not. Can I please have access to this part of the book?'_

_The ink from her words disappeared and was replaced with the pages of information about Nephalems. The first thing she read, the top of the page: **'** **Nephalems** **were known to be creatures of light and dark, the neutral beings between the** **beneficient** **and** **maleficient** **forces. Having powers from both their angelic and demonic parents, most** **Nephalems** **were more powerful than both their parents combined.'**_

☪

"I'm fairly certain I'm the only one of my kind, thank you," picking up the tablet again, she could tell there was still oncoming doubt from everyone else. 

"But if you're not?" With the flash of memory being over, the best thing he could do now is try to expand upon the memory that came back to her head in hopes that she could figure out if there were more memories like that. Knowing Nick was the type of person who'd go the extra mile, she knew better than to try to take his mind off the doubt.

"I know I am, believe me," it wasn't clear how she'd be able to prove it, but she knew she could if she wanted to. There wasn't going to be any debate about this, that much was for sure. :I have to go down to the detention center and make sure nothing's going to happen."

"And escaping for a millennia is something else you do, right?" There were also reports of her staying in the shadows, though she only did that to make sure the timeline kept itself intact. The knowledge that Fury knew that, as well as Tony, wasn't something she could sit with.

"Don't try picking fights with something you don't know about, Tony," setting the tablet down, she was about to walk out of the lab, though Steve's hand stopped her from being able to go anywhere. "Move your hand, Steve, if you know what's good for you." When he didn't move, she put her left hand on his wrist, purposefully prying it away from her chest as if it was the weight of a crayon.

Seeing him wince was enough to catch the attention of the rest of the group, though she turned back to the group one last time. "Like I said, don't pick fights with something you don't know about."


	7. Chapter 7

As she was about to get to the detention center, there was a sudden blast that knocked her off her feet. She didn't know what it was, but by the sound of the earpiece, it was Hill in her ear. "Engine 3 is down," that was sent out to all agents, which Adaliya heard and was planning to go over towards and fix.

However, the second she moved, specifically to get up from the ground, she felt a sharp pain in her left side. As her eyes trailed down to look, she noticed the thin but large piece of metal lodged in her side. "It looks mostly intact, though it's impossible to get out there and fix it," one technician was the one responding to Maria.

"If we lose another engine, we won't have to worry about repairs," thought it seemed safe to admit that, Adaliya removed the metal piece from her side. Dragging two fingers across the wound, she looked at her golden blood before rubbing it between her index and ring fingers. There was a way for her to heal her wound, which she knew how to do. "Someone's gotta get outside and fix it."

The light in the room was enough for her to use to patch herself up, though, using her powers to this extent wasn't going to help her with her energy. "D'you get that, Stark?" Was sent from Fury to Stark, which he only said one thing: "On it."

Adaliya, however, was still more focused on Loki than fixing the engine. Rushing over toward the detention center, she saw something she wish she hadn't. Coulson's chest was bleeding as though he'd been stabbed from behind, Thor was in the containment Loki was originally in, and Loki was at the control panel.

"Back away, right now," one of her hands were up in defense while the other was trying to patch Coulson up. However, her power to heal him wasn't working, meaning whatever he was stabbed with was divinity, something her power couldn't fix. 

"And while your focus is on saving the human who tried to delay me-" manipulating the darkness in the room, his body was wrapped in chains, chains only a specific type of species could form. 

"You talk too damn much, Loki, you know that?" As realization set upon the two men, Thor's eyes widened and Loki looked up from the chain to Adaliya. "Oh, so now you're silent?" Using that to her advantage, she was about to knock him out, though there was a sentence that caught her off guard.

"You're a nephalem, aren't you? The only species that can manipulate twilight," though she was trying to not appear shocked, she looked up from Thor to Loki. "And now you're silent. You've not once questioned how come you have horns, how come you've not seen another person within your species, hm?" Looking at both of the boys, there was a feeling of uncertainty that ran down her spine.

"Shut up, alright? It's already bad enough you've caused damage to the helicarrier," though she was about to move, an unintentional gasp left her lips, as well as a sudden pang in her back. The chains that were wrapped around Loki disappeared, considering Adaliya was injured.

Collapsing to the ground, Loki dramatically got up from the ground and brushed off the imaginary dust on his body. "You need to work on your awareness, since you think you're so high and mighty," unknown to her knowledge, the arrow had a paralyzing neurotoxin that was injected into her bloodstream the second it pierced her skin.

"I _hate_ you," her eyes were tracking his movements, even to where he walked over to the keypad that controllled the cage Thor was in. As if completely disregarding Adaliya's existence, Loki focused more on his brother in the cage than the woman on the ground.

"The humans think us immortal, shall we test that theory?" He moved his hand to open the chute underneath Thor, which, for any normal person, would be instant death. However, out of the corner of Adaliya's eye, she saw Coulson with a rather large object in his hand, aimed specifically at Loki.

"Step away, please," it seemed the gun in hand was enough to catch Loki's attention, though she could tell it was a trap. "Do you like this? It's a prototype we started working on after you sent the destroyer. Even I don't know what it does, do you want to find out?" 

As he was preparing to fire the weapon at him, the Loki who he was aiming at disappeared and reappeared behind him. Plunging the spear through his back, it went through his heart, though the event itself caused Thor to let out an involuntary, "No!" 

Acting as though nothing major happened, Loki walked back over to the control panel and pressed the button that released the cage from the ship. While Coulson's slumped on the ground with the weapon in his hand, his eyes glanced over to Loki. "You're going to lose."

"Am I?" Having a coy and disbelieving tone in his voice, Loki slowly walked over to the agent on the ground. "Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortess falls from the sky. Where's my disadvantage?" He sounded boastful, though the agent knew that this sort of mindset would be his downfall.

"You lack conviction, it's in your nature," though Loki was about to continue, Coulson fired the weapon, which sent him through the wall. "So that's what it does."

☪

"They're not getting through here, so what the-" though he was about to continue, there was another explosion that shook the helicarrier.

"Engine 1 is now in shutdown," was the voice from the intercom, which was the reason the helicarrier started falling from the sky. The altitidue was dropping fast, going from 37,000 feet in the air and speedly getting closer to the ground.

"It's Barton, he took our systems and is on the way to the detention center. Does anybody copy?" Because of the paralysis-inducing drug still in her body, she couldn't move anything other than her arms. Her legs were still out of commission, which meant she couldn't do anything to help.

"This is agent Romanoff, I copy," Natasha, who was shaken up about the whole thing with Hulk, was still trying to push through the others. "I'll get him back."

Not 2 minutes later, Nick rushed into the room, seeing Coulson and Adaliya in the room, both on the ground. Coulson was slumped against the wall and Adaliya was on her stomach with the arrow in her shoulder. "Sorry, boss we couldn't get him."

Pulling the arrow out of Adaliya's shoulder, she knew it would take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours before it fully wore off. "Just stay awake, _eyes on me,_ " deep down, both of them knew about the gut feeling that he wasn't going to make it. He was stabbed through the heart with alien tech that no one knew about beforehand.

"Oh, I'm clocking out here," it was shameful that she couldn't do anything about it, not to save him, not even to be able to move her body to keep the helicarrier in the sky.

"Not an option, can you move, Adaliya?" Having the gut feeling that the arrow had some sort of paralyzing substance, it was something he needed to ask in case one of the guards needed to carry her back to her room.

"Nope, I need to get back to my room and regain my strength. I can't even use my power because of whatever was in that arrow." The only thing she could do was move her eyes and mouth, meaning she couldn't move her head or anything below the neck.

 _"A medical team is on its way to your location,"_ knowing that was one of the calls someone had to make to help them both. 

☪

Waking up in her room, well, the one she was intending to stay in while she was on the ship, she realized she could move her arms but not her legs. "That's going to be a headache for later. Assuming that, because she still couldn't move fully, anywhere from 25 to 30 minutes had passed since Coulson.

With there being a knock on her door, she knew she couldn't get up to answer it fully. "Come in," was the best thing she could do, to which the door slid open to reveal Director Fury. "How is he?"

"The doctors called it, he's gone," becuase of her way of thinking, shhe couldn't help but feel that some of this was her own fault. "Before you go all self-blaming-" as he was about to continue, Adaliya looked up to him with knowing eyes.

"You already know I'm blaming myself. See, I didn't realize that only my kind has my abilities, yet _somehow..._ Loki connected two and two. Him using that against me was what got that arrow into my shoulder. Coulson tried to hold him off in attempts that I could get my strength back and get rid of him, therefore, it's my fault."

"You don't know the reason he went there to try to keep Loki occupied." Though it wasn't known to the public, Nick and Adaliya had a close friendship, regardless of how much of a hardass persona he had.

"But it makes sense, doesn't it? Would he have really, and I mean _really_ have went down there himself if there wasn't an agent who ran the risk of dying while them and Loki was alone? I don't think so, let alone, with the amount of illusions he can create to distract someone, we don't know if he really went down there-" this was a normal thing to expect from Adaliya: sudden rambling.

"Daliya, you're rambling again. No one knows the reason he went down there, and it very well could've been to protect you, but that's no reason for you to blame yourself. There might also be a way for us to save him," because she knew about most projects when it came to shield, there was only one she could think of.

"No, absolutely not, let him rest. You are _not_ going to be using the T.A.H.I.T.I. project on him," though Nick was the Director of shield, Adaliya's word would surpass his own sometimes. "Tell me you're not going to use kree blood to bring him back."

"It's already in one of the GH warehouses, they're going to start as soon as possible," tthough Adaliya was old and stayed on Earth most of her life, she knew a lot more about alien technology than what she let on.

"Do you know what an invasive species does when it's introduced to new terrain it wasn't originated from? It spreads, it takes over like wildfire, and, going off the assumption that you guys don't know how to get the decayed tissue out, that gives him anywhere from 5 to 7 years before he dies again."

"But it keeps him alive until then, doesn't it?" This sort of reckless behavior would be the same reason there was a chance Coulson wouldn't get to live past 55 if they went through with it. 

"At what cost, Nick? Bringing back people from the dead, especially in my experience, it _never works._ " She knew better than to tamper with the dead, especially when it came to those who died by otherworldly beings.

"We still need him in the field, Adaliya, that much is obvious," as he was about to continue, there was an announcement on the intercom to Director Fury specifically. _"Sir, the Hulk is going to tear this place apart."_

"Go fix it, I'll stay here, but me and you aren't finished with this conversation." Watching as he got up from sitting on the chair beside the bed, Adaliya's eyes followed his movements when he walked out the room.

"Then get his attention," rushing out of the room, there were opposing guards, though Nick shot each of them before regrouping with the agents in the cockpit.


	8. Chapter 8

Since 20 minutes had passed, Adaliya still couldn't feel her legs, though, then again, she had roughly an hour before it'd fully wear off. Staying in her room would drive her insane, to which there was a wheelchair in the closet. 

Reaching over to the closet, she struggled to open the door before finally getting the wheelchair out. Spreading it out wasn't much of an issue before she sat in the chair. Adjusting her legs into the holders, she soon opened the door and wheeled out of her room before closing the door behind her.

There was someone she wanted to see first: Barton. After the whole mind-controlling thing, that wasn't something she'd gone through, but she wanted to make sure he was okay. Knocking on the door that led to Barton's room, it wasn't overly surprising that Natasha was the one that answered. "Adaliya.... what are you doing in a wheelchair?"

"A paralysis drug from an arrow in my shoulder. I can't feel my legs out, and God forbid if I try using my powers. I originally came here to check on Barton," moving out of the way for Adaliya to get into the room, she wheeled in and backed up to the foot of the bed.

"I'm sorry about that, I didn't-" though Barton was about to continue with his apology, Adaliya scoffed before raising her head and turning it to look at the man in the bed.

"Nope, abso-fucking-lutely not, you're not going to play the self-blame game if you weren't in control of your own body. "Unfortunately, I can't risk the chance of using my powers without it going wrong, so I can't help when it comes to the final fight. However, you need to take this guy down, and if you don't I will," knowing that her words carried power, _fear._

"We'll get him," knowing there was the other thing that both him and Thor knew what she was based on her powers? She definitely wanted answers, though there was the other thing of what Loki was talking about when he mentioned the 12-year-old girl running to Frigga with the same name Adaliya had.

"You guys had better, and Barton? If you go down to the infirmary, there's an herb called Ayahuasca, it'll help for the headache and relieve the symptoms from being mind-controlled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go check on Mr. Narcissist and Mr. Star Spangled Spandex." Wheeling herself towards the door, she slid it open before rolling out.

☪

In an apparently empty detention center, Tony was looking over the room where the glass cage used to be. The sound of the wheelchair was what alerted him of her prescence. "What happened to you?" Though he was trying to sound considerate, he was coming off as inconsiderate.

"Paralysis drug from Barton's arrow and that," pointing over to the faint blood stain on the wall, it started to form a basic idea of the reason she couldn't walk. "Speaking of, why were you trying to pressure me into telling you about Phase 2?"

"Because you were witholding valuable information, and another thing: what are you? None of the files say anything about how you're so old and how you're still alive." The same nonchalant but debutant tone he'd always had.

"I'm not telling you what I am, that's my business. I've been in SHIELD this long and no one knows what i am, you're not going to find out either." Though she didn't know if her memory was failing her, she was pretty sure the last time she told someone, they died.

"I thought we could be able to trust SHIELD, yet they're holding valuable information about the Tesseract, so why should I trust you?" That sort of question was something she'd heard as an excuse for a while, which caused her chuckled.

"I'm not asking you to trust me, but then again, trust isn't something you need to overly rely on. Regardless of what you're trying to invoke, it won't work. Thor figured out what I am, which is enough of a mistake, so I don't think I'm gonna let anyone else find out." 

Steve, who'd just walked into the room, firstly noticed Adaliya in a wheelchair, which caused him to form visual confusion on his face. "What happened to you?" Knowing she was walking fine before the helicarrier started to come apart.

"Paralyzing drug, won't wear off for another hour, so the big fight isn't something I'd be able to participate in." Though they didn't quite understand it, Adaliya's powers were currently haywire if she tried to use them. 

"Was he married?" Since the whole thing with Coulson shook the team, it seed only fair for Steve to ask in regards to this sort of situation.

"Nope, but there was a cellist," knowing about the growing love the two had before he died, Adaliya also knew there was a chance he could come back to life, though it'd be better to keep that from those who weren't SHIELD agents.

"I'm sorry, he seemed like he was a good man," though Steve was trying to come off as considerate, it seemed his life was complete with war, meaning that his way of thinking was probably that of a war soldier.

"He was an idiot," that got Adaliya close to being mad, though, she'd never gotten that far enough with her powers to immediately self-heal or harm others intentionally.

"For what? Believing?" Because Tony wasn't the type of person to be considerate, his words didn't have much emotion or having a filter.

"For taking on Loki alone. He was out of his league and he should've waited for reinforcements to join him," just because of his disrespect to the matter, if Adaliya wasn't temporarily paralyzed, she would've body-slammed him to the ground.

"I don't give a damn how you look at it, but you need to be careful with your words, Tony. Don't call someone an idiot because they tried to delay the villain," just the way he talked was enough to piss her off immensely.

"He was doing his job and sometimes there isn't a way out," Steve knew that the way Coulson acted was something out of bravery, but that didn't stop the fact that he died in the first place.

"Right, how did that work for him?" At this point, in order to avoid potential conflict between her and Tony, she wheeled out of the room with annoyance.

_'Jesus fuck, I can't stand him anymore. Something about his narcissism just pisses me the fuck off.'_

☪ _  
_

By morning, Adaliya could walk again, but that didn't mean she would help them fight. Wearing baggy clothes to cover her figure, she walked out of her room and into the cockpit, meeting with Fury and Hill. "Sir."

"Agent Hill," waiting her next sentence, he looked over to the agent that was leaning against the railing.

"Those cards, they were in Coulson's locker, not in his jacket," how she obtained that information wasn't important, but she was curious of as to why he lied about where the cards were when he died.

"They needed the push," knowing that the lie was enough for them to get out there and fight, there was a sudden alert on the monitors.

"We've got unauthorized departure from bay six," that was one of the planes that carried cargo, albeit weapons or anything else.

"They found it. Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything," knowing that the unauthorized departure was probably from either Loki or the Board, Nick was in a rush to fix whatever was going on. "And Adaliya, get out there and try to distract Loki."

With that, she nodded before rushing towards one of the hatches. The shirt she had on had two slits on the back for where her wings could come out of. Opening the door to the sky beneath, the jumped out with the hatch self-closing.

Her wings, which were about 14 feet in wingspan, flung out of her back, allowing for her to fly without falling. Closing her eyes for a second, she used her extrasensory perception and tracking to figure out he was at Stark Tower.

☪

Landing on her feet at the entrance, she walked down the stairs, to which Loki noticed and smirked before walking away from the glass. Not leaving one another's eye contact, she got to where the two were only feet away from one another.

Rolling her shoulders to hide her wings, she raised an eyebrow before looking away. "Don't tell me you're going to appeal to my 'humanity'." In a mocking tone, he thought as though he knew what was going on, though that wasn't the case at all.

"No, no, I've come to threaten you," clarifying what she was planning to do, she started to move from behind the bar and walk up towards the god.

"Then you should've had me in a chain binding, if that was your intention." Having a smug look on his face, Adaliya walked closer to him before flashing her grey eyes. 

"Do you want a drink, while we're here?" It was an obvious stalling tactic, though it was something that could help buy the Avengers time to figure out a way to close the portal spewing the Chitauri.

"Stalling won't change anything," though he was still overly confident, Adaliya went back to the bar and grabbed a bottle of Crown Royal hard liquor from the middle shelf.

"No, I said it was threatening, and are you sure you don't want a drink? It's hard liquor," holding up another glass, she was offering a second chance for him to say yes, though he still refused.

"The Chitauri are coming, Earth will be mine to rule and nothing will change that. What do I have to fear?" It was that same cockiness that would be his downfall.

"The Avengers, or at least, that's what they call themselves. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes,' or something else like that." Brushing off the name, she was hoping he'd get the picture to where she wouldn't have to resort to violence for this sort of talk.

"Yes, I've met them," with the spear in his hand, Loki started to walk towards the bar where Adaliya was staying at. 

"I admit, it takes them a while to get together, but let's get a headcount, yeah? You've got Thor, your brother, the demigod; a super soldier, who I helped form from my own hands; a man with astounding anger management issues; two assassins who both have ledgers full of red, a billionaire who has the technology to apparently keep energy clean and sustain it. Now, guess what you did, hm? You pissed off all of them, and you might need to rethink your options from this point on." Being serious, she moved away from being behind the bar.

"That was the plan," as the two moved closer to one another, it became clear in her eyes that he had every intention of winning, regardless of how many human lives needed to be sacrificed.

"Not a great one at that, daddy's boy," scoffing suddenly, she rubbed two fingers towards the middle of her head. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't think your daddy issues and the want for attention from people who didn't care about your well-being would cause you to do something so reckless as to try to takve over Earth."

"And what thinks I still beg for my father's attention? Are you trying your hardest to see through me in hopes I would stop trying to dominate this pathetic planet?" Completely disregarding the passage of time that caused him to be distracted, which was enough for Adaliya to continue to press on.

"I do know that if you try to take over the planet, there's going to be enough people that's going to rebel. When your "kingdom" falls and your "throne" is overrun, you'll easily realize that Earth isn't the place to be overrun, let alone ruled by one foolish Jotun."

Those words seemed to hurt, unfortunately, because he then stormed over to her and wrapped his hand around her throat, tight enough to choke her. "It'll be such a shame when everyone's busy fighting you."

As he was moving the spair to Adaliya's chest, she moved both of her hands to his face in a vertical shape. Clapping them with enough force to stunhis nerves, the hold around her neck loosened as his body crumbled to his knees. "W-What have you done to me?"

"When you shock someone's nerves enough, it's like a reset, meaning you can only move so much for as long as I want you to. And it seems like I've got enough time," he couldn't see behind him, but all of the Avengers was there. "Take him out of here, alright?"

Barton purposefully stood him up and Thor put handcuffs on him, securing him to the point of him unable to hurt anyone else.


	9. Chapter 9

Everyone walked towards the center of a footbridge, Tony carrying a briefcase, Thor with Loki in a muzzle and handcuffs while Barton, Steve, Natasha, and Banner getting out of their cars. Selvi took some sort of glass cylinder out of his truck and Tony opens the case on the ground.

With a pair of tongs, Banner holds the cylinder and puts the Tesseract into the cylinder Selvig has. Being bound up and gagged, it was clear in Loki's eyes that he was mad. As he looked towards Natasha, she whispered something in Barton's ear that made him smile.

"Before we leave back to Asgard, there's something I want to request. Adaliya, can you come with us?" That statement from Thor caused her to lift her head in confusion and look at him with concern.

"Can I ask why?" She wasn't against the idea of spacial travel, but she wante to figure out what the occasion was and how long she'd be staying.

"There's someone I want you to meet," hesitantly taking his word for it, she placed one of her hands on Thor's shoulders and the other one on Loki's shoulder. As both men turned the handles, the hree were sent to Asgard by something similar to a rainbowy beam.

☪

A day's worth had passed, meaning now was the time for Loki's trial. Adaliya, being in the room she slept in, was given robes as apart of the Asgardian culture. Though she was able to keep things into a different dimension as storage, the only thing she cared about was the book she'd had since she was 12.

Just being on the cover of the book, her fingers traced over the leather engraving of her name, though it'd always been a mystery why she couldn't remember who she got it from. However, the second she stepped out of her room, she bumped into someone. "O-Oh, I'm sorry."

"No, dear, my apologies, it's my fault." It was none other than Frigga, who, from what Adaliya was told, is Thor's mother. "What's your name?" Being polite as she could, Frigga knew the face already, though she couldn't admit that the two had met before.

"Oh, it's Adaliya, and you must be Frigga, right? Thor's mother?" Since she didn't have an actual description of Frigga's face, it was best for her to try to assume. There was something about her face that she felt like she recognized, maybe it was a deep-rooted feeling, but she couldn't quite describe it.

"Yes, that's me," without too much of questioning, Frigga nodded before signaling Adaliya to walk with her. "Can you walk with me? There's not been many times I get to meet someone from Earth," the knowledge that Adaliya came from Earth wasn't something she shared with her, though she brushed it off considering the Chitauri invasion on earth.

"Alright, sure," without thinking about it, Adaliya joined her with walking, following her around the castle. "What's it like living here? I mean, being royalty over people?" She wanted to know what it was like living in a castle, especially one that coincides with 9 total realms?" She didn't sound like she was geeking out, more of, _interested_ on what it was like to live as royalty.

"It's been far from boring, and definitely interesting having two demigod sons," without Adaliya realizing where they were going, both of them left the kingdomand started to walk towards a house, one that should've been familiar to Adaliya, but wasn't exactly.

☪

"W-Wait, queen Frigga, where are we going?" By the time she fully snapped out of the conversation, she realized that they were standing in front of a house, one she didn't recognize. 

"Adaliya, you've mentioned to my son that you didn't remember anything before the age of twelve, correct?" Opening the door first, there was a look of shock in her eyes, though a wave of sadness soon took over when she looked to the ceiling.

"What is this place?" There was an odd familiarity with the building, but she was fearful of what it meant. "And how come I recognize it?"

"You came from Earth, though you weren't human, so I took you back to Asgard in order to try to help you get ahold of your abilities. Instead, someone came after you when you were 12, and you... well..." signaling to the roof, there was a flashback that came to her mind.

☪

_A knock at the door was the one thing that disrupted their peaceful night. "Mom, who do you think it is?" Because she was laying beside her mother, both of them sharing a blanket large enough to cover their bodies, Erah had to get up from being on the couch to walk over to the door._

_"I don't know, sweetie, but you should go hide, remember what we talked about?" As Adaliya got up from being under the blanket, she quickly rushed to the closet to hide from whoever was coming to visit the two._

_"Don't come out of the closet unless it's Queen Frigga, yes, I know," stepping into the closet, Erah made sure Adaliya was out of sight before walking towards the door. An unnerving feeling ran down Erah's back before she opened the door, hoping to ignore and discard the feeling completely._

_"Can I help you?" With a calm and welcoming tone, Erah opened the door, though when her eyes adjusted to the sight in front of her, she couldn't help but feel nervous suddenly. "I'm sorry, I don't think I've seen you around, who are you?"_

_"Who I am isn't important, I know you've been harboring a child named Adaliya. If you give her to me, no one has to get hurt," his voice was deep, authoritarian, even. However, she knew better than to betray the Queen's orders of raising the child._

_"I have no idea what you're talking about," trying to keep a steady voice, Erah had a gut feeling of how this encounter would go, though she didn't want Adaliya to see it go down. "Please leave," trying to maintain a calm voice wasn't as easy as she'd expect, though it wasn't any easier when the man suddenly unsheathed his sword from his belt._

_"I'm only going to give you another chance before I forcefully look for her myself: where is Adaliya?" Not giving another answer, the man sighed with bitter annoyance before stabbing Erah, making her body limp and her collapse to the floor._

_A scream, the scream of a child, came from the closet, to which Adaliya quickly got out and attempted to run out of the house. The man, however, was faster, to which he stopped her from getting the chance to escape. "Y-You killed her...!" Untouched feelings, raw emotions, all of these started to bubble up within the preteen._

_"You're going to come with me, and if you try to fight back, I don't care how old you are, I will hurt you until you learn your lesson. Am I understood?" He sounded like a stern parent, though the tears falling from her eyes only fueled her untethered emotions._

_Light and Dark started spewing from her body and surrounded the man's body, easily wrapping around him before closing in on body. The pressure build-up around his body caused spontaneous combustion, to which blood splattered across the ground, walls, and ceiling._

☪

As the flashback ended, she felt shaken up, tense, _scared._ There was something about an unprocessed memory flooding her mind that caused her to feel unsafe. "W-What was that?"

"What you experienced was probably one of the memories I hid away from your consciousness so you wouldn't feel like a burden when you grew up." Stumbling to the couch, she sat down and held her head, given she was trying to make sense of the situation.

"I need them back, I need my memories back, please," her vocal tone sounded more like she close enough to crying that all it would take was another bad memory before she'd be set off. "I need 'em back, I need to see what happened before I went back onto Earth."

"Are you sure you want those memories back, heavy as they may be?" Though Frigga wasn't exactly a therapist, she knew the potential effect of childhood trauma.

"I need to know, there may be a reason why someone came after me and tried to kill me, instead killing my mother." It was sounding like she wasn't backing down, to which Frigga hesitantly nodded before placing her middle and index finger where Adaliyas third eye would be.

A rush of memories came flooding into her consciousness as her breathing picked up. Her eyes were in a glossy haze as her mind was hyperspeeding through the lost 12 years of life. Moving her fingers away from Adaliya's forehead, she knew the memories would have to catch up to her at their own speed.

As Adaliya's eyes readjusted to her surroundings, tears brimmed her eyes. All of the times she would laugh, cry, and make deserts for both of them, it all came flooding back. "Adaliya?" As though her body was frozen, she inhaled sharply, not realizing it felt like the wind was bein knocked out of her.

"...mmmh," a feeling of disorientation washed over her body, though she felt the need to adjust her clothes in hopes she could try to stop feeling disoriented. "Sorry... it was just a bit disorienting, is all. We should get back to the castle, shouldn't we?"

At first being indecisive with her options, Frigga nodded before getting up from beingbeside Adaliya, extending a hand to help her up. Taking the hand without a second thought, she walked out the door first, though her hand was still on her head. "Come on then, there's somewhere else I want to show you."

"Alright."

☪

As the two arrived back to the kingdom, there was rubble on the ground and guards attempting to control the area. "Send a squadron to the weapon's vault and defend it at all costs. Seal the dungeon."

"Odin," as they were two lovers, both of them went to check up on one another first.

"Frigga," turning for a mere second before facing the guards again, his words came out as a command. "Go!" As he turned to face Frigga, Jean, and Adaliya, he tried lying, "it's a skirmish, nothing to fear."

"You've never been a good liar." Sif passed through Jean's line of sight, though neither Odin or Frigga picked up on it. 

"Take her to your chambers, and I'll come for you when it's safe. Adaliya, there's a chance you might be targeted, so I want you to meet Heimdall and ask that he take you back to Midgard." Knowing what happened last time she was sent to earth, it was fair that she be away from the drama in case anyone went after her.

The run of the rainbow bridge would take her half an hour, but she didn't have that sort of time. There were silk robes covering the tattoos of her wings, to which she moved them out the way. Hesitantly opening her wings from her back, she rolled her shoulders so they wouldn't fel so heavy.

Because her wings had a wingspan of 13 feet, they were weighted, though that didn't stop her from flying as fast as she could. Flying in a horizontal way to the bifrost, she used her wings to fly against the current before her feet landed on the ground again. 

With her wings dragging behind her eyery step, she rushed towards Heimdall, who was expecting her. "I need to get back to Earth. If I stay here... you know what might happen," referring to what happened last time the two met up, which was when she was 12, he knew the way to help his people and help her.

The bifrost sword, that was the one he used to stick it into the transporter, which caused the doorway to open up. "That goes to Earth, and I'll be keeping an eye out for anyone who may watch or attempt to harm you."

Nodding without saying another word, Adaliya stepped through the light, which sent her through space and back to Earth.


	10. Chapter 10

Six months had passed, and because it was spring, it meant that there would be more missions Adaliya would have to do. As for her figure, she was still the type to hide it. Getting a call on her phone, she sat up from her bed and looked at the caller: Fury. Reluctantly answering the call, she sat up from being in bed to answer the call.

"Yes, Director?" She wasn't the type to answer calls so early in the morning, not with morning voice being a thing. "Is there something you need?"

"Come in, I got a mission for you." For now, that seemed to be enough to make her get out of bed, though she didn't want to. Ending the call, she got out of bed and started the shower. 

"Harper, can you make breakfast? It seems like I don't have that much time," peeling off her clothes one by one, she stepped into the shower moments later. Having her hair up so it wouldn't get wet, she focused on getting her body clean for whatever mission was planned.

☪

By the time she'd gotten to SHIELD headquarters, she had a newer baggy suit on, one that she got custom-made for herself. "Director?" Knocking on the door to his office, she noticed the squad of agents waiting in the room beside the office.

"There's been a recent area open of expedition I've opened up, and I want you and that team to go discover it. You know the procedure: anything you find, you report," an expedition, it didn't sound too bad, though there was the other thing of how far away it was from civilization.

"Ooh, okay, you're gonna have to give me twenty minutes to make sure everything's ready, but I'll be more than willing to take the mission." It was an expedition, it didn't sound too bad, though there was the other thing of her needing to make sure she had everything to lead the mission.

"Great, get to it," calling it what it was, it was a dismissal, which she left the room and walked over to her office. With a wave of her hand, the windows in the room became opaque, to which the lights also turned on. 

Changing out of her baggy clothes, she put on a fitting SHIELD outfit, though she put the baggy clothes on underneath, just as an extra layer of protection. Flicking her wrist again, it set the windows back to normal, just before she grabbed a bag for her to fill with gear.

Leaving the room, she walked over to the arsenal, grabbing the headlight and setting it into a different pouch. The plan of the mission was that it wouldn't take longer than a day, maybe a day and a half at best. Seeing as though her team of agents were also in the arsenal, it deemed now was the best time to say something to them.

"Alright, listen up: as I'm sure you're all aware, this is an expedition mission. Don't pack anything heavy, as it'll only be a day and a half. Everything and anything you find, record it. After our team comes in the inspectors, who'll take a sample of anything and everything. If there's something out of line, run it by me before you try to touch it, from there I'll handle it myself." That was the first part, though there were a few questions that needed to be answered by the group.

"What if there's a skeleton or a fresh dead body?" The idea that someone had gotten to the part of the land they were expediting was a slim chance, though there were still multiple things that could be done as a precaution.

"Then you either let me or a forensic scientist know so we can look over it. If anything else seems off, keep track of it, take note. Anything and everything in the room will be documented and put into a file for the director to read. Any other questions?" After a minute of sheer silence, there was still no answer when it came to her final question. "Good, then let's get moving, we got a big day ahead of us."

☪

Being in the Zephyr, she landed when the team got into the general vicinity of the expedition site, to which she opened the hatch. "Remember, I go in first, Rumlow, you're directly behind me. If anything happens while we're in there, I'll get rid of it while forensics is looking around." Since she already gave them a basic rundown of everything, it didn't seem to be that necessary to say it again.

Stepping off of the Zephyr, she placed her helmet on and turned the light on. With the team behind her, she stepped inside the cave, using her hands to keep to the walls as best as possible. Considering it was a cave in Peru, it seemed to be the best idea to track the walls to help her remember her way out if needed.

However, there was some sort of chill down her spine, not just about the cave, but about something else, something about her crewmates. Keeping that feeling in mind, she wanted to focus more on getting the mission done before dealing with her gut feelings. 

Walking further into the cave, she noticed the stack of skulls in the middle of the room, as well as the leaky roof that kept most of the place together. Noting to herself that the skulls looked more like a throne, she noticed the double artifacts in the room. There was one with a crescent moon on its forehead and the other having two demon horns.

Not knowing what either of them meant, she knew her and forensics were going to open them at a later time while still being on this mission. Taking them both down from the pedestals, she turned around to see rifles pointed at her face and at her chest, aiming at her brain and heart. "Really, Rumlow, you couldn't have waited until _after_ the mission was done?"

"You know how I work, I fulfill the mission as soon as possible. Just so happens that my mission involves those statues and your head on a silver platter." As if there was gonna be some sort of shocking turn of events, she just sighed and chuckled.

"Guess that means you're not getting any of the desired results," without a second thought, Adaliya threw the artifacts on the ground, shattering them instantly. Almost immediately, there was a rumbling sound, as if the ground on top of the cave was starting to collapse. within seconds, rocks started falling from the roof, as well as the leaky roof starting to flood the room faster.

"Damn it! We gotta move," dissapointed as he sounded, Rumlow started to rush towards the entrance of the cave, though there was the other idea of letting the cave collapse onto her. "Kill her then come on," that sounded like enough of an order for everyone on Rumlow's crew to start wiping out those who weren't Hydra before.

Bullets flew from guns to people, purposefully killing the forensic scientists who didn't state they were part of Hydra. There were bullets that went from the guns to Adaliya, as if they could do damage, though she pretended to be shot in order to drop suspicion of her still being alive. 

With everyone leaving the cage, Adaliya was about to get up, only to have a rock fall onto her head, though it only caused her to have a concussion. Trying to stand up properly, her eyes were trying to readjust to her surroundings. There were two spirits, no... _entities_ , rather, who stood in front of her.

"Christ, that rock hurt, got me hallucinatin' 'n' shit," muttering to herself, she was about to stumble out of the cave, though the entities didn't allow her to do something like that. "Or not." As if trying to focus on them, it only worked for a second, just before said entities pried their ways into her mouth as a ball of light.

Falling from the sudden intrusion, she was planning on getting up, though her body started to hurt all over. Waves of pain rushed through her body at scattered intervals, which she was trying to ignore, though the pain only grew. With her hands starting to spazz, her muscles involuntarily moved, presumably from whatever entered her body.

 **'So sorry, little one, but it seems as though this is the price of you smashing our artifacts. I wonder how long it'll take for you to realize how much of your world's been turned upside down.'** That was one of the entities, though there was the other one who'd yet to say anything.

☪

Trying to get back home, she knew there was the chance that SHIELD was done for, especially after the shit Rumlow and his crew pulled in the cave. Opening the door to her home, she wanted to get a bath and get through all of this corruption crap.

Peeling her clothes off when she got to her bathroom, her eyes scanned over her body in the mirror, just to make sure nothing was wrong. Noticing the bullet holes in her head, she hovered her hand over them, just before the bullets dropped out of her head and into her hand.

Looking back up towards the mirror, she jumped back when she saw the entity with the cresent moon on her head. "Who are you? Or should I ask _what_ are you?" As if trying to keep her composure was difficult enough, there was a hand that was placed on her shoulder.

 **"Your curse!"** There was a sharp noise that came from the entity, to which Adaliya pressed her hands on either side of her head, as if it were to silence the noise. It'd gotten to the point to where she fell to her knees, hoping the noise would silence down.

When it ended suddenly, she got up from being on the ground, only to see a different entity on her right side. "Not you, too," muttering that sentence to herself, it seems as though the entity heard her, which it just chuckled. 

**"I'm all but a curse, little morsel. I've been here for generations to come, and now that I've found a suitable host, I'll be able to live longer through you."** Though there wasn't the sharp noise, her face was being diverted to her right, as if being forced into a kiss. Instead of it being a kiss, however, the entity just smirked. **"Look at you, little morsel."**

There was some sort of tug in her mind, though not before she was pushed to the wall. "Let go of me," trying to resist whatever was happening, there was a sudden feeling that the wind was being knocked out of her lungs. Because of the on-set feeling of weakness, there wasn't much she could say or do.

 **"I wonder how well you'll bode when you start to become a sexual creature. How many of your friends will fall for you when you're around them? Maybe the feeling of sexual hunger, little one, will overtake your body to the point of you losing control, hm?"** Whoever or whatever this entity was, it seemed to be a touchy one.

As if purposefully trying to get them off, it didn't work. Being pulled into a sudden kiss, the entity dissapeared, specifically into her mouth. It felt like possession with the inabillity to move voluntarily. Collapsing to the ground on her ass, it took her a moment to adjust back to her body, considering none of this felt real.

Rubbing her head, she got up from the floor and walked over to the shower. Hoping to wash off whatever just happened, she started the running water and focused on watching off the gunk from the expedition. However, there was some sort of feeling at the top of her head, closer to her temples.

Hesitantly placing her hands up to where the pain was coming up from, she noticed there were two horns, not from her being a demon, but probably from the second entity that showed up. _'This could just be coming from onset panic, right?'_ She didn't want to guess what they were doing there, but she didn't have a choice.


	11. Chapter 11

Getting out of the shower, Adaliya felt better. Somewhat, at least. She still felt like shit after the expedition mission, though she couldn't have much time to herself. When she heard the doorbell, she looked over to the main door before rushing over to her room. "Hold on a sec! Harper, open the door and tell them to go into the living room."

Putting her clothes on, it was a minty bluish-green top and shorts, she didn't want to know who all and what all was going on, not unless it was something important. 

Stepping out of her bedroom, she walked over to the living room to see Natasha, Steve, and Sam, though she didn't recognize Sam. "Thanks for letting us in, we didn't know who to trust." Steve, both he and Natasha were covered in oil and dirt, though Sam didn't look dirty at all.

"No problem, who are you?" Pointing over to the black man in the grey shirt and blue jeans. "Sorry, s'just that I don't remember meeting you at SHIELD."

"Sam Wilson, nice to meetcha," extending a hand for her to shake, Adaliya took his hand and shook it back. "From what I hear, you're fairly impressive."

"Hope I can live up to those standards. Anyways, what's going on? And why are you two covered in dirt and grime?" Looking from Sam to Steve and Nat, she wanted to know whether or not them looking like they came out of a bomb shell explosion.

"SHIELD's been compromised by Hydra," when she heard those words come out of Nat's mouth, she rolled her eyes into the back of her head before pinching the bridge of her nose.

"So that's why Rumlow shot me in the head half a dozen times," muttering those words, she got looks of confusion from everyone in the face. "I _just_ came back from an expedition mission where we were looking for statues. When I found them, I was about to report them, only to see him and the guy with the rat-tailed hair shoot all the agents who weren't double-crossers. Knowing those statues were important, I smashed them onto the ground, and they shot me. I just got back, like five minutes ago."

"I'm sorry that happened," not knowing what to say after hearing that, Nat was the one who spoke up, though she shook her head and looked down, as if looking at something specific. 

"Don't be," bringing her head up to their eyesight, there was a slight shift in the emotions in the room. "I'll get him back, no matter how many bullets it may take. Anyway, what's the plan, what all do we know?" Since it was clear this topic wouldn't be brushed over again for a while, it was an unconscious agreement to drop the subject in all. 

"The Winter Soldier, have you heard of him?" Trying to bring the topic up lightly, there wasn't much information about him that no one knew. There was, however, a need for more context, which she could find out when she had enough time for her and Harper to do more research about him.

"Faintly, I know he's the ultimate soldier in Hydra, found with one of his arms gone, so they had to amputate the limb and replace it. What about him?" Crossing her legs, she leaned against a table, trying to figure out what a soldier from Hydra had to do with SHIELD.

"He shot Fury, he's dead," Steve was the one speaking up now, and there was still something else about the situation, according to Natasha. 

"And remember, he said that if anything should happen to him as Director, he'd pass the title onto you." Having a feeling that there was something off about the situation, Adaliya straightened her posture before looking at Natasha dead in the eye.

"Are you sure he's dead? Me and you both know how many resources he has." Nodding without a second thought, Nat sighed and glanced over to Steve before looking back over to Adaliya.

"We saw his body, Adaliya, he's gone. It means that, at any moment, SHIELD will be here to bring you in and give you your new ranking." Just as she finished talking, there was a knock on the door.

"Agent Adaliya, it's Agent Sitwell," looking over to the group, she placed a finger over her mouth, showing for them to keep quiet. From there, she waved her hand, causing them to go invisible from anyone looking for them.

Moving from the table to the front door, she took a deep breath before opening the door, having a forced smile that looked genuine. "Sitwell, can I ask what the special occasion is?" There'd been a rule to never come to Adaliya's house unless it had something to do with the Director himself.

"I have some bad news about the Director: he's passed away, unfortunately." Acting as though this was shocking news, her smile faded, followed by sadness. "As I'm sure you're aware of: he made sure that if anything happened to him, you would be the Director. We need to bring you to SHIELD so you can be promoted to such a level." 

"Then I guess we'd better get going, shouldn't we?" Making sure she had the three invisible, she went inside to get her jacket, glancing over to the living room, still being able to see the three. "Harper, initiate the Genesis 2.0 Procedure." Whispering it under her breath, Adaliya pointed towards the garage while her hand was hidden from her back.

Grabbing her jacket, she walked back to the front door, stepping out of the house. Once she got into the car, they drove off, leaving the three cars tailgating one another. She knew about their ruse, and she had a general idea of what they were planning on doing, though she was great at pretending under certain situations. 

Still being in the house, Steve, Nat, and Sam looked at one another in confusion. "Harper, what's the Genesis 2.0 Procedure?" Steve was the one to ask the AI the question, specifically because he was the one who could hear it.

"There's a car waiting for you in the garage to follow her back to the Triskelion. The Genesis Procedure is: if she gets kidnapped and cannot come back within an allotted time period of twelve hours, I will notify those she has listed as her emergency contacts. The 2.0 is to act if anyone in the house can help her out of the situation, also providing a car with her ability to be tracked."

"Then we'd better come on, then."

☪

"By any chance, Adaliya, have you seen Steve Rogers or Natasha Romanoff?" Hearing the driver, which she recognized as Rumlow, ask the question, she shook her head and shrugged.

"Not since 2012, why, what happened?" This wasn't something she knew directly, but considering those two entities were roaming around in her body, she could get into Steve's head quickly. She knew what happened, and she also knew that he was considered a fugitive because he was "withholding information" about why Fury was in his apartment.

"Fury was in Steve's apartment the night he died, but he won't disclose any information about it. I was hoping, with you being the new director, you could help us find him." Her eyes darted from Rumlow to Sitwell, which it clicked to her that Sitwell was a part of Hydra.

"What if it was for a reason? I mean, what if it was something that Fury made him swear not to talk about?" She didn't know whether that would work, but there was a part of her brain that made her want to hurt them severely. 

"Are you trying to see this from a different angle?" She didn't want to figure out how this would go, and by the looks of it, that wasn't something acceptable to either of them, but they were under "SHIELD" protocol to bring them in.

"You know how much of a logician I am," when the car stopped, it was outside of the Triskelion, to which she got out before eyeing the building. Because there wasn't as much of an issue with sensors, all she had to do was sign her badge in. Getting onto the elevator, she kept quiet out of knowledge of what they were trying to do.

"You're gonna need this," With her jacket acting as a second place to put things, she turned her head to see it was some sort of name tag. Taking it out of Rumlow's hand, she placed it on her jacket, though she could tell there was some sort of tech inside, and it wasn't just the type that'd be seen everywhere.

When she walked into the room, there were a few of Hydra's agents in the room with Alexander Pierce, and the board of directors. "Adaliya, it's been too long," that was Pierce, who gave her an unsettling feeling, meaning he was probably a part of Hydra as well. 

"Indeed, it has," because the soldiers hadn't left the room, it became somewhat clear of what was going on. Hawley was Natasha, she had the facial masking technology on. 

"Let me ask you, Singh, what if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow, and you knew that they were gonna drag your daughters into a soccer stadium for execution?" While talking, Pierce hands him a glass of champagne. "And you could just stop it with a flick of the switch. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you all?"

"Not if it was your switch," tossing the glass of champagne, Alexander signaled to one of his guards, to which they handed him their gun. However, before he did anything, Adaliya kicked the gun out of his hand. The Hydra agents were about to attack, though Hawley took half of them down in thirty seconds, which Adaliya took the other half down in twenty seconds.

☪

"Disabling the encryption is an executive-level order. It requires three Alpha-level members." Sounding as though Alexander had the higher power, Nat temporarily looked from the screen to Pierce.

"Don't worry, the company's coming," there was the sound of a helicopter before both of them looked over to the door. Fury was still alive. Her gut had told her he was alive, she was just glad that it was true.

"Did you get my flowers?" Not getting a response, Adaliya smirked before looking back to Natasha and Pierce. "I'm glad to see you, Nick."

"Really? Cause I thought you had me killed," walking over to Adaliya, she gave him a light hug, which he accepted. There weren't many people who he could trust, and quite frankly, there was still a bit of a gray area with the two, but it wasn't anything they couldn't get through.

"You know how the game works. I didn't know, however, that you made Adaliya become the new Director of SHIELD," signaling over to Adaliya, even if for a moment, Nick glanced over to her before looking towards Alexander Pierce.

"So why make me head of SHIELD if you were gonna pull shit like that?" He wanted to figure out the reasoning for his actions. Going through everything to get to the spot of Director was with Pierce, so it made little sense for him to set him and SHIELD up for failure.

"Because you were the most ruthless person I'd ever met. If there was the possibility of two Directors, Adaliya would've been a Director alongside you." Though there was a bit of reasoning in his words, his actions cancelled any feeling of assurance.

"I did what I did to protect people," because Fury wasn't a man of many words, he wanted to make sure their plans went as promised to stop Hydra. It didn't matter what happened, but he wasn't gonna let a bunch of innocent people die because of his leadership.

"Our enemies are your enemies, Nick. Disorder, war. It's just a matter of time before a dirty bomb goes off in Moscow, or an EMP fries Chicago. Diplomacy? Holding action, a band-aid. And you know where I learned that; Bogota. You didn't ask, you just did what had to be done. I can bring order to the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing twenty million. It's the next step, Nick, if you have the courage to take it." It didn't matter about sacrificing people, it mattered about killing people suddenly, _it mattered about the lives of those on the list._

"I have the courage not to," pulling her gun out, Natasha made sure that it was enough to get him to do what was needed to be done. 

"You don't think we cleared your data from the system?" As if using that idea was gonna be enough to get them to give up, Adaliya grabbed him by the shoulder to keep him still.

"You deleted my password, you might've deleted my retinal scan, but Mister Secretary, if you want to stay ahead of me," removing the eyepatch over his scarred eye, she made sure he wouldn't try to leave. "You have to keep both eyes open."

" Alpha Level confirmed. Encryption code accepted. Safeguards removed." The AI's voice was the feeling of affirmation when she heard the voice stop. It was enough to prove that all of Hydra's and SHIELD's secrets being released into the world. Letting go of the hold on his shoulder, Adaliya had a feeling something else was gonna happen.

"Done, and it's trending," looking at her phone, Pierce clicked a button on his phone, causing the nametag worn by the councilman to burn a hole into their sternum. Being quick with her reflexes, she took off the name tag and threw it in the air, which it burned suddenly.

"Unless you want a two-inch hole in your sternum, I suggest you put that gun down," seeing as though there wasn't another option, Natasha lowered her gun. Pierce was planning to get out of the building, though that plan went kaput when she tackled him to the ground, wrapped her legs around his thighs, and turned his head at a 75-degree angle, having a finger aimed at his carotid. 

She stomped the phone in his hand out, and him letting out some sort of startled cry from the pain of his hand being broken. "Nat, take the nametag off, you two get out of here, I got some business with him having Rumlow shoot me in the head."

Seeing as though both of them left the room without another word, Adaliya picked up a gun from one of the fallen soldiers, though it seemed they were waking up again. Before they had the chance of waking up fully, tentacles made from the light in the room, stabbing all of them in the heart.

With her gun in hand, she shot two bullets in all of them, though she used an extra bullet for Pierce, assuring he'd die quicker. Leaving the room, she needed to go away from people, not out of staying out of the spotlight, but also because of that same hunger rolling around in the back of her head.


	12. Chapter 12

After the entire thing with SHIELD's fall, things were quiet other than Adaliya having a sort of pain in her chest. She didn't want to question what it meant, but she had no other choice but to figure it out. As of now, it'd been a few months, only three, since SHIELD fell, meaning there was the press to worry about.

Though some outlets had understood about not coming to the Avengers to figure out what the hell happened, it didn't stop the prying eyes from getting to her. Many people had been wondering why there was an unknown face behind Nick Fury's, which many believed he was the face and someone was doing the actual dirty work.

Regardless, she couldn't focus on that now, there were many things she'd have to take care of before she could relax. 

☪

By the time she'd gotten home, it was nightfall, meaning the one thing she could do was go to sleep. The two entities in her body, however, didn't agree with her plans.

"Finally," being in the shower, she made sure to not get her hair wet. She had wash day a few days ago, meaning there wasn't a need to wash her hair again. Having her eyes closed, she hadn't realized there was someone in front of her.

Washing the soap off of her back, she turned around to let the water run down her skin. Something in her gut told her to open her eyes, which she didn't want to do, not at first. It wasn't until she felt a chill run down her spine that she listened to her gut.

Opening her eyes, she pulled the curtain back to see if anyone was there. Not wanting to risk the chance of exposing where she was, she pulled the curtain back to normal. Turning to face the showerhead, she physically flinched when she saw a familiar figure in front of her.

 **'You really haven't learned, have you? Do you think you could escape me?'** She didn't want to figure out what the entity was talking about, not just out of annoyance, but also because she sometimes regretted breaking both of the statues.

"You're not real, you're in my head," muttering the phrase to herself repeatedly, she didn't want to believe that this was reality. "You're fictional." Hoping to get some sort of guttural relief, she shut her eyes, counted to three, expecting to see nothing in front of her.

To her demise, the entity was still in front of her, to which she was about to back up to the wall. That plan didn't go as expected, considering she felt someone behind her. "This isn't real, you're all in my head." Because of how often this happened, sometimes once a day, other times it happened every hour, she was close enough to crying on some days.

 **'Is that what you tell yourself to get to sleep at night? Is that really what you believe?'** The second one was the one behind her, which she found out the name was Enchantress, had a crescent moon on her head, a metal bra, and chains running from her metal underwear. 

"It's not what I believe, it's what I know. Neither of you are real," trying to force that concept into her mind wasn't working, considering some part of her brain felt fearful around them.

 **'Denying our reality won't change anything. Do I have to prove to you again that we're as real as can be?'** Trying to think of everything that happened to her, though her mind was racing hoping to prove the two entities wrong, she vividly remembered waking up with scratches and bruises on her skin. **'Now you're getting it.'**

"Even if it was because of you two, it doesn't stop the fact that neither of you are real. For all I know, I could've stumbled out of my bed." Considering she had no choice but to interact with them, she glanced between the two.

 **'Then how about you tell me whether or not this is real,'** hearing that sentence made her confused, to which Enchantress grabbed both of Adaliya's arms, keeping her in place. 

"Let me go!" Trying to use her powers, it sent her into a somewhat panicky state when she realized they weren't working. "What the hell have you done to me?" Continuing to try to get out of the hold, there was a sudden slit on the back of her neck. From there, all of her muscles relaxed. 

Trying to move any of her muscles wasn't an option, almost as though she was paralyzed from the neck down. **'How do you think this will feel in the morning?'** The first entity, the one who didn't have a name, had talon-like hands. They used them to carve something into her stomach, more of her lower torso.

She was unable to talk, unable to scream from the excruciating pain running through her body. **'Though you've been trying your hardest to live life as if nothing was wrong, I should let you know something,'** holding and squishing Adaliya's face, the first entity moved to her ear. **'Firstly, my name is Jessabelle, and second: it's been fun prancing around in your body.'**

Having fear in her eyes, she was desperately trying to move her body, but standing straight wasn't something she could do by herself. "Let go of me," trying to hide the fear in her eyes, there was a moment when she blinked. At that same moment, however, both of the entities disappeared. 

Standing as though nothing was wrong, she was still in a bit of an unstable standpoint. Quickly re-washing her body, she cut the water off, wrapped the towel around her torso, and stood in front of the mirror. Remembering where the faint pain was, she moved the towel out of the way to see if the recent events were true or not.

From the looks of it, the thing carved into her skin were letters, specifically words. The only issue was that it was backward. Tracing her fingers over the wounds, it took her a moment to figure out what it'd said.

 _"Find a way to feed or I'll make life worse,"_ was what she picked up from the letters, them disappearing moments later. "Feed? 'the hell you mean feed?" There weren't many times Adaliya would codeswitch, but she was _beyond_ pissed at the moment.

There was a sudden sound, one that was identical to nails against a chalkboard. Covering her ears, she flinched to the point of her crouching down. After everything in the shower, she didn't expect it to happen outside of the general space.

Looking at the mirror, there were three words carved: figure it out. Letting out a groan in annoyance, she left the bathroom, turned the light off, and went over to her bedroom. Picking out a pair of silk pajamas, she put her hair in a bonnet and plopped into bed.

About to go to bed, there was a sudden pang in her body, one that felt horrendous. Her eyes shot open, to which she sat up in a pissed-off mood. To make things worse, there was a knock at the door.

Wanting to ignore it, she didn't have a choice, considering her morality. Hauling her ass out of bed, she walked over to her front door and opened it. There was a man, one that had a hoodie and sweatpants on. "Can I help you?" Trying to sound as generous as possible, she didn't know what the measuring cup in his hand was for.

"Do you have any brown sugar?" It sounded like a stereotypical situation, though she didn't want to think about it too much.

"You need brown sugar at this time of night?" Looking at her clock, she noticed that it was ten o'clock at night. "Sure, come in," moving out of the way of the door frame to let him in, she had a bit of confusion in her eyes. "What's your name?"

"James, but most of my friends used to call me Bucky," knowing she'd recognized the name, probably from Steve when it was the forties, she didn't want to be quick to assume wrong.

"Used to?" Not wanting to feed too much into the situation, she was questioning how someone like him was still alive. "Are you guys no longer friends, or something?"

"Something like that," moving towards the cabinet she had her sugar in, she reached up to get the bag. Knowing she had both brown sugar and white sugar for cooking, she grabbed the bag to the right. 

"Did you just move in?" It was clear she was trying to make conversation, though Bucky wasn't the type to have a small conversation. Close to prying about his personal life as she was, she knew he probably wasn't gonna answer too many questions.

"Yeah, I'm just down the hall," setting the bag down on the counter, she turned around to look at the man, probably to face the fact that their little "conversation" was coming to a close. "Okay, how much do you need?"

"About a cup's worth," handing her the measuring cup, she set it onto the counter and started pouring out the measurement needed. "Thanks."

"What do you need the brown sugar for?" Not knowing if it was for something major or if it was for baking, there must've been a reason for all of this. She didn't want to push her luck, but she had a lot of curiosity on the subject.

"I'm baking a cake for one of my friends, his birthday is tomorrow," glancing towards her calendar, she noticed that tomorrow was also Independence day. Being quick to put two and two together, she realized that he _was the Bucky Steve would talk about._

"Tell them I said happy birthday," giving him the measuring cup back, there was a feeling in the back of her head telling her to do something to him, but she didn't want to listen. Walking back to the main door, Adaliya focused more on getting him out of the apartment. 

"It was nice to meet you..." trailing off, she'd realized she never told him her name. Seeing as though he was waiting for an answer, she gave a smile.

"Adaliya, it was nice meeting you, James." Calling him by his first name, she didn't know whether to call him his first name or his nickname.

"You can call me Bucky," walking away from the doorframe, she closed the door, leaning against the wall beside it for support. There was a painful feeling, one that felt like needles were on the ends of her nerves. It felt like hunger, some sort of feeling of starvation, _primal starvation._

That feeling, it only got worse as the seconds progressed. Holding onto her arms, she was trying to focus more on how to make the feeling go away. There was the same scraping sound from earlier, the one that sounded like nails on the chalkboard, though she didn't know where the message was gonna go.

Struggling to get up from the ground, she pivoted herself off the wall and got up to go to the bathroom, planning to figure out what the message was this time. The one thing that confused her, however, was the fact that the message wasn't on the wall. 

"Stop! Stop, I'll do whatever you want, just make the feeling go away," her words, they weren't screams like they once were, they were hushed whispers this time. Tears were forming in her eyes, only because this sort of pain was severely intense.

With her head tilted to the ground, there was a black hand, specifically one with talons, that directed her head from the ground and towards the source of the arm. The tears in her eyes fell onto her cheeks, also to the point of the tears saturating the hand.

Her eyes, they showed how much pain she was in, both physically and mentally. After how often this happened to her, she thought she'd be able to brush off the feeling. It felt like salt on the wound, but the wound kept opening, and every crevice led to more salt on top. "Please, I-I'll do whatever you need, just make it stop."

Despite everything she'd been through, from giving birth, being stabbed, this one topped the list. **'You need to have sex.'**


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will contain mild NSFW themes, and if this isn't something you're comfortable with, you're more than welcome to skip this chapter and go onto the next one.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that? My ears made me believe you told me to have sex," not wanting to find out if the words she heard were real, Adaliya tried standing up, though she was still going through pain.

 **'Your ears heard me correctly. You see, I am a sexual creature. One might call me a succubus, though I don't always lay underneath someone. One might also call me an incubus, though I don't always lay over someone. You get a general idea,'** circling around her, there was a finger tracing her shoulders.

"But why would I need sex to get the feeling to go away? You're just an entity inside of me, but you shouldn't be affecting me, so why would I need something as... _weird_... as that, to live daily life?" It wasn't that she was opposed to the idea, it was the fact that something like that wasn't something she partook in.

 **'Though you aren't a sexual creature, my presence has been enough to change your physique. You've noticed it, haven't you?'** Hearing as though the line was inconsiderably vague, Adaliya shook her head, moving away from Jessabelle with the intention of going to sleep for tonight.

"You know what? This is stupid, I'm going to sleep," about to walk to her room, the instance she moved one of her legs, it felt like her feet were superglued to the floor. "Let me move around and go to sleep," trying to move her feet from the ground, her efforts were pointless.

 **'Answer my question: have you or have you not noticed the changes to your body? Your clothes don't fit anymore, or have you failed to notice such a drastic change?'** Still not knowing what was being pointed out, Jessabelle pulled out a photo of what Adaliya looked like in 2012, though she rarely took photos of her body shape. From there, she looked at the difference between before and after.

"...Oh," realizing how her body was originally shaped, she took a moment to realize all of the differences from years ago to now. Pulling her shirt back to see her waist, she noted it was the same, though her chest and hips were bigger than before. "Did you maybe think it's because of how much I work out?"

 **'Working out,'** Jessabelle wrapped a hand around Adaliya's neck, using the other hand to smack her ass, causing her to let out a gasp. **'Wouldn't make your ass soft like a marshmallow, now would it? It also wouldn't make your tits just as soft, now would it?'**

"Who's to say it wouldn't?" As much of a brat as she was acting, it didn't stop the fact that the sexual creature kept the grip on her throat and pressed her back against the wall. "I mean, c'mon, you're really gonna have me believe that something like you can have a physical effect on me."

 **'If you're trying to deny everything my abilities have given you, then I'll have no choice but to leave you alone and fend for yourself. You wouldn't want that, with how much pain you're going through, would you?'** Seeing Jess was the one in control also set the tone that there wasn't room for argument.

"And if I don't want to have sex with anyone? If there was an alternate way to get what I need without the awkward part?" She wanted to consider all of her options, which also meant figuring out how much of this _obstacle_ she could tackle without directly facing it.

 **'Are you saying you'd rather kill someone to get what you yearn for?'** Hearing the word 'kill' wasn't something she expected either, which caught her attention. **'You heard me. There are two ways to get the energy you need to survive, but one way would make you a serial killer.'**

"And what is this second option? You make it sound like it's something dangerous," not knowing everything about the situation, it was a great way to find out different ways of getting the energy she needed. Still, this entire topic was not only weird to have, but it wasn't something she signed up for.

 **'Through kisses, touch, you can absorb any and all of the energy you need,'** within seconds, the scenery surrounding the two changed from Adaliya's apartment to a nightclub. **'And remember, I'm visible to you and everyone else.'** Hearing that sentence only made her furrow her eyebrows in confusion, but the surrounding music around the two suddenly caught up to her.

"Jesus Christ, it's loud," not expecting the sudden increase in noise, she covered her ears, took a breath, and hesitantly removed her hands. "A little warning would've been nice, don't you think?"

 **'Look at those two, cute as a couple, but they aren't. All you would need to do is draw out their libido, leaving them to the point of asexuality.'** She didn't want to do that, take away something fun about a person's life.

"Is there _another_ way to get what I need without hurting them?" Hearing that sentence caused Jessabelle to sigh and roll her eyes, getting up from the seats and walking over to the girl. From there, she broke up the kiss and went to kiss her, which the boys joined in with kissing her from behind.

 **'You should join in, come on,'** saying those words, there was her gut feeling telling her to join in, which was something she followed through. Putting a hand on his chin to direct his face to hers, she pulled him into a kiss.

Her instincts kicked in, which she placed one of her hands under his shirt and raked upwards onto his chest. Feeling him melt into the kiss, she placed her other hand around his neck, hearing an audible groan from the guy. "F-mmck~," his moan into the kiss caused her to go into a somewhat feral state.

Moving her hand from his chest to behind his head, she slithered her tongue around his mouth, causing him to let out an audible groan into the kiss. From there, her tongue grew longer and glided down his throat. Feeling his throat around her tongue caused her to let out a whimper, causing her to retract her tongue gack into her mouth.

Her eyes were closed at the time, and once she opened her eyes, the man's eyes looked into hers as if he was starstruck. "Your eyes look like the stars," he sounded like he was high off of something, which caused her to glance at Jessabelle with confusion.

 **'Your body's a walking aphrodisiac, and from a simple kiss, you've got him under your effect. You'll learn as your life goes on that people, even from a glance, can fall for you because of the pheromones you produce. Have you also noticed the pain usually running through your body is no more?'** While her physical body was kissing the girl, making her almost melt in her hands like putty, Jess was talking to Adaliya through her mind.

"I hadn't realized it'd gone away," continuing to kiss him as if it was nothing, her left hand snaked down to his belt and unbuttoned his pants. From there, she reached inside his boxers, which his visible reaction was a shudder and his chest rising and falling unsteadily.

However, some conscious part of her wanted to withdraw her hands, either because it felt wrong or because it wasn't something she'd gotten used to doing. **'Don't tell me you're thinking about stopping? Doesn't it feel better when you're feeding on what your body desires?'**

 _'It doesn't stop the fact that it feels wrong, and it also doesn't help to know that this sort of thing is what I need to live a normal life without pain.'_ As much as her conscience didn't want to deal with this sort of thing anymore, part of her mind enjoyed it, which made her feel uncomfortable.

Removing her hand, there was someone standing behind her, no, _pressing against her backside._ **'Please tell me you're not gonna withdraw this soon? You haven't gotten everything your body needs, have you?'** Standing there, she watched as her right hand was being brought to the person behind her: the girl from earlier.

Turning to kiss the girl next, she felt a pair of lips on the back of her neck, probably from the guy. Cupping her face, she was about to have more fun with the two of them, however, Jessabelle had other intentions. One moment, both of them were in the club, and by the next, they were back in Adaliya's apartment. "What was that for?"

 **'You were going to take too much, and since you mentioned how you _didn't_ want to kill anyone, I brought you back before you would do something you might regret.'** Seeing as though that was the reason, it made sense, but now things were starting to connect for her. **'So can you see how your body needs sexual energy to get through time. Without it, or if you go too long, you could be sent into a state of almost death.'**

"Would that be such a bad thing? Or would it be...." she wanted to see how long this sort of thing would last to see whether she could evade it to the best of her abilities.

 **'The world would pass by while you're frozen in place, like a state of desiccation. You wouldn't be dying, per se, but it would be cut close.'** Finding out a piece of information like that made her question everything. Being stuck in one place with no way to move and watching as the world passed by, sounded like a genuine nightmare.

"Damn, well... how come there's not another way to get through time without having to worry about being stuck in a normal state? I didn't ask for any of this to happen to me-," knowing how breaking two statues caused this entire thing, there were other things to worry about, especially when it came to her power levels.

 **'But you broke my statue and the Enchantress, meaning you brought this onto yourself. Regardless of if you wanted this to happen, you're stuck with it. You haven't even noticed your tail, have you?'** Seeing as though the sentence was something she didn't think about before, she looked towards her legs, though she saw nothing. **'Not that kind of tail.'**

Feeling a hand wrap something unfamiliar, she glanced towards where the source of touch led to. "What the hell is that?" Though there was a thing of having to deal with physical changes, the touch from her tail caused her to cringe. "That feels weird... stop that," wanting to remove the hand from the limb, she started prying the hand off.

 **'And what about this?'** Feeling the hand move farther down her tail, there was a feeling of sensitivity, which caused her to glance at the hand in confusion. Watching as she slid the hand to the tip, which looked like an upside-down heart, there was a sudden feeling in her stomach that made her let out a moan. **' _Ohhh,_ that's where your sweet spot is? I envy you.'**

"Sweet spot? Take your hand off of there, it feels weird," quickly prying the hand away, her cheeks puffed in embarrassment before instinctively wrapping her tail around her leg. "How do I get this thing to go away? I don't need an accidental brush-up to result in what just happened."

 **'A tattoo. Closer to my time, not yours, everyone used tattoos and skin magic to keep any extra limbs inside their body. If you want to go get tattoos to hide everything, there's someone you can go to.'** Hearing as though there was a way for her to hide something, it made her feel better about the entire situation, it didn't stop the fact that this was an entirely new thing to deal with.

"Can we go in the morning? It's two at night and I'm severely tired." Walking to her bedroom without the need of listening to the demon, she plopped into her bed and fell right asleep.


	14. Chapter 14

It'd been a month after the entire Jessabelle situation, but now there was someone else who caught Adaliya's eye: Bucky Barnes, her next-door neighbor. There were some days that she didn't pay him any attention, but now, she became more interested in him, his case.

The current time was 11:00 PM, meaning Lia was getting ready to go to sleep. Usually, she would've already been asleep, but something was different this time: she kept losing hours. The entire situation about how she would stare off for a second, then a glance at the clock would indicate hours had passed, she didn't know what it was.

However, before she was able to get into the bed and get comfortable, there was a knock at the door. Not wanting to answer it, especially because of how close to sleep she was. "It's probably nothing," focusing on getting in the bed again, there was another knock at the door, this time stopping her from getting into the sheets.

"This better be important," walking from her bedroom to the front door, she looked through the peephole to Bucky. Unlocking her door, she opened the door full swing, to which she noticed he was only sweatpants and a tight-fit shirt. Not focusing on his fashion sense at the time, she looked him dead in the eye. "What are you doing awake? It's almost midnight."

"I need your help with something: I put a pan on the top of the cabinets, but I can't reach it," it sounded concerning about how he got a pan that high in the first place.

"Do you not have a ladder?" Seeing as though it was a valid question to ask, she wanted to see if all options were off of the table before she would lend him assistance. Just because it was 2014 didn't mean she had to help everyone she encountered, even if her gut was telling her otherwise.

"When I first moved in, a friend of mine put it up there with his ladder, but I can't reach it by myself." She knew better than to suggest the idea of him getting onto the counter, the idea of that going wrong was high.

"Yeah, just give me a second," stepping behind the door, she grabbed her keys before getting back into his line of sight. "Lead the way," ergo the two walked over to his apartment, which he opened the door for her, letting Lia in first. "Chivalrous, hmm?" Muttering the sentence to herself, she glanced to the top of the cabinets.

"What was that?" Unable to hear what she'd said completely, she just shook her head. "Anyway, do you think you'd be able to help?" The one way she could think of getting the pans down was by sitting on his shoulders, which probably wasn't going to be easy.

"Yeah, just one thing," pausing for a moment, she had to think of a way to put the information into words without the feeling of embarrassment. "I'm gonna have to sit on your shoulders to reach them."

"Oh, that's fine," since it was clear he wasn't fully grasping what all it meant, Adaliya put one of her hands on his shoulders and exhaled. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't think you're fully understanding what I'm telling you," taking a second, she watched his eyes trail to her thighs, which were pressed up against one another as normal. Regardless, he didn't see much of a problem, cellulite, and everything.

"Still, that's fine," hearing as though he brushed it off like it was nothing, she had to take a double-take.

"I-... Your funeral," whispering the words to herself, she removed her hand from his shoulder. "Give me a boost," expecting him to give her a leg-up, he contradicted her expectations by picking her up by the waist. "Hold on, hold on, _hold on._ Flag on the play, am I not heavy to you?" 

"I bench over three-hundred pounds, you're fairly light to me," setting her down, there was a slight look of awkwardness in her eyes. "Here," removing his hands from her waist, Bucky cupped his hands together and bent at his knees.

"Thank you," stepping her right foot into the cupped hands, she swung her other leg around his left shoulder. Moving his hands from being in the cupped position to having a grip on her thighs, there was a moment where she could feel his flesh hand and his metal hand pulls her thighs apart. Though it wasn't a wide parting, it meant he couldn't see through them. "Well, that must've been awkward. Can you move me up a bit?"

"Yeah," stepping forward, she made sure to keep her balance while he moved. Grabbing the first two pans, she placed them into the cabinets directly underneath. Moving with ease, she put the final pan in place on the second shelf where both of them could reach.

"Why do you have a burger cooker on the top of cabinets?" When she spoke the sentence, she glanced down to his head, expecting an honest answer.

"I think he put that up there as well," she didn't know if he was debating something or not, but at this point, it didn't matter. "Can you set it down as well?"

"Yeah, just move me to the left," it was out of her reach, which she didn't want to take the risk of falling off of his shoulders. "I guess it's a good thing you have broad shoulders, huh?"

"They do come in handy," he stated as he moved over, causing there to be enough space for her to reach it. Once it was in her hand, he got down on one knee, which caused her to remove her left leg before removing her right.

"Anything else your friend might've left on top of the cabinets?" A hint of sarcasm was in her voice, but it was a serious question in total. "And I'm sorry about you having to be between my thighs."

"I didn't see anything but those pans, and it was fine. Your skin is soft so I didn't pay that much attention." Hearing his opinion on her thighs made her pierce her lips in a way that made it seem like she didn't know what to say after that.

"Well, I'm gonna head back to my apartment. If you need anything else, just let me know." Having the offer on the table, Adaliya turned to the door and walked. Opening the door, she stepped through and closed the door behind her.

While watching her leave, however, Bucky couldn't help but smirk. Looking at the ground, he scratched in between his eyes and began walking towards his room.

☪

A few weeks had passed, and though there wasn't much conversation between the two, it didn't stop the little smiles the two passed to one another. However, they didn't talk much.

One night, however, specifically at 2 AM, there was freaking coming Bucky's apartment. It was loud enough that it woke Lia up in the middle of the night. "Is he seriously having sex at this time of night?"

Realizing her words, she knew she couldn't talk shit anymore, probably because of her current lifestyle, she tried to go back to sleep. However, there was a feeling in the back of her head that something was wrong with him.

Unable to shake the feeling, she groaned to herself before hauling ass out of bed. "This better be fuckin' serious, cause I'm tired." Putting on an oversized shirt and shorts, she walked from her bedroom to the living room before going to the front door.

From there, she left her apartment and went next door to his. Knocking on the door in a set of three, she waited for an answer. When she didn't get one but instead kept hearing the creaking bed, she placed a hand on the door.

Stepping out of her body through astral projection, she flew through the door and towards his room. Her gut was correct, something was wrong. The scene wasn't the way her mind expected: he wasn't having sex, he was having either a PTSD nightmare or a panic attack.

Snapping back into her body within an instant, she phased through the door into his apartment. Rushing over to his bedroom, she knew better than to wake him up. "Bucky," the best thing to do at this point was to try to get him to calm down while he's in the nightmare.

Seeing as though he was still in the nightmare, she pressed a hand to his forehead, one that had grey energy radiating from it. "Bucky, wake up," still speaking in a calm voice, she tried her best to find where his consciousness was within his mind.

☪

_Inside his mind, there were doors, each of them probably led to different periods of time and different memories. However, there was one door that caught Lia's eye: a metal door with an old glass window. Beginning to walk over to the door, she felt a sudden chill run up her spine._

_Glancing behind her, she saw Bucky standing there, glaring at her, but he was different somehow. "Hey, Bucky, you're kind of in the middle of a nightmare. How about you come with me so you can wake up?"_

_Trying to shrug off the feeling about him, she extended a hand, but her efforts were pointless. Instead of a steady walk toward her, he ran, but it didn't have a feeling of relief, it had a feeling of anger. Flinging her hands toward the figure, she expected her powers to kick him back far enough to get away._

_That wasn't the case, considering her powers didn't work. Glancing at her hands, she clapped them together in hopes it would spark them. "Shit, he doesn't know I have powers," muttering the words to herself, her body was slammed against the wall by him, er, alternate him._

_About to pick herself up, she was grabbed by the neck and was harshly pressed against the wall. "This isn't you, let go of me," the one thing she hated about being in someone else's mind was that it was uncharted waters._

_Instead of getting a vocal answer or getting him to ease up, the metal arm wrapped tightened the grip around her neck. "I'm sorry about this," muttering the words to herself, she brought her legs up to his waist, but they were crossed over one another._

_Twisting him onto the ground, she rushed over to the metal door and pushed it open. From there, she looked around to see Bucky, the actual Bucky, going through some of his memories. The one thing that made her confused was the fact that he was completely still. "Bucky, come on, you're in the middle of a nightmare."_

_From there, he took her hand and followed her back to a door. "Go through there, I'll see you on the other side," knowing she couldn't go through the door, she closed her eyes._

☪

Retracting her hand, she opened her eyes to see James was no longer asleep, meaning the nightmare was over. "Adaliya?" He was groggy, probably from his sleep, though he didn't know whether this was reality or not.

"Hey, it's okay, you can go back to sleep. You had a bad dream, and you're still in one." Knowing this would've worked, she got up from the bedside and was about to leave through his door, though his voice stopped her.

"Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?" It sounded like a fairly reasonable request, but the fact he asked made it clear he knew this was real. "I don't want to go through another one of those," though she didn't look through his memory, it was clear that whatever attacked her was freely roaming in his head.

"Yeah, sure," closing the door, she sat onto the side of the bed. Watching as she sat on the edge, Bucky used his metal arm to pull her closer to him as if she was a plushie. Laying down on her back, she watched him crawl between her legs to where his head was on her chest.

"Goodnight, mom," maybe he was in a dream, of a sort, one with his mother. She knew better than to disrupt it.

"Goodnight, James."


	15. Chapter 15

☪

The morning after Bucky's nightmare, Adaliya was still asleep, though the one thing she noticed was that he wasn't in the bed with her. Waking up almost immediately, she noticed Bucky was sitting on a chair almost watching her. "How did you get in here? And why were you curled around me when I was asleep?"

"I-," trying to think of a valuable answer, the one thing she could think of was to come clean and tell the truth. Getting up from the bed, she was about to move closer to him, trying to get him to calm down, time seemed to move quickly. One second, she was standing, by the next, she was pressed against the wall with a hand around her throat. "Bucky..."

"It's James, my name is James to you. How did you get in here?" His voice was cold, it was almost bone-chilling. 

"You were having a night terror, I heard you and came over to help you get inside," it was hard to speak with his metal hand wrapped around her throat. 

"Then how come the door isn't broken down? How did you really get inside?" This was definitely going to be interesting to bring up, but she had to.

"Because I have powers," admitting the truth, it was enough to get him to let up from her neck. Backing up a bit, it was barely enough for her to catch her breath. Using her knees for support, she moved the goddess locs out of her face to glance up at him. "Jesus fuck, a little warning next time?"

"And what kind of powers would you have?" It was a logical type of question, but she still needed a moment to fully recollect herself. 

"Enough that I could tell you were in a night terror. All I did was go through your mind to find where you were, then I pulled you out." She couldn't do much in this sort of situation, especially because she was still catching her breath. 

"What all did you see?" From the sound of his voice, he had an obvious guilty conscience, but it was a good thing she didn't pay attention to any of those. 

"Not much. All of your memories were filed by doors, that and I only focused on getting you out, so I didn't go through any of your memories." Moving from the wall, she sat down on the bed. "A little bit of warning next time, thanks," glancing up towards him, her eyes tracked his movements to him sitting on the bed beside her.

"You didn't see anything else?" It didn't sound like he was calm, but it wasn't fearful of the right thing. She'd expect that it'd be from his life before he got stuck in Hydra, maybe his time in Hydra itself, but that wasn't the case.

"No, I didn't care enough to look. I only came over because you were making a lot of creaking noises from the bed, so I thought you were having sex with someone." She needed to clarify her reasoning, not only to him but also to herself.

"You thought I was having sex?" The disbelief in his voice helped prove that she was incorrect, but it didn't stop the fact it was her initial thought. 

"With how much your bed was creaking? Yes, I thought you were having sex. But, seeing as though you're okay," getting up from the bed, she walked out of his bedroom and towards the living room with the intent of leaving to go back to her own apartment. "I'll be heading back to my own apartment now."

"Oh, well, thank you," there was a bit of awkward silence before she opened the door and left to go back to her own apartment. 

☪

Six months had passed, making it 2015, and though there hadn't been many eventful days, it didn't stop the fact that time passed. Since Adaliya was learning to adjust to being a sexual creature, it meant she knew the bare minimum for what had to happen: once a week she would have to go out and feed.

She hadn't been in touch with any of the avengers besides Steve, and even then, she didn't talk to him. The last time she talked to anyone was the fall of SHIELD, but after that, she didn't reach out. The one thing that caught her attention, however, was the fact Tony sent her an invite to some sort of party.

Not knowing whether to go or not, she held off on answering, though she put in an RSVP just in case she changed her mind. **'You know, not talking to anyone is unhealthy.'** Turning to face the source of the voice, Adaliya flinched when she saw the Enchantress standing inches away from her. **'I adore the fact you still flinch at my presence.'**

"Yeah yeah, that's nice and all. Do you not know what personal space is? Or what privacy is?" Seeing her be annoyed, more of a mix between annoyance and anger caused the deity to be sarcastic this time.

 **'I've been your mind for a year, I know physically and mentally everything about you. Why would you be shocked about me popping up physically?'** Having to look up to the Enchantress, specifically because she was levitating in the air like a pestering fly, Adaliya didn't want to think about this conversation right now.

"Regardless of you knowing everything about me, which is a mistake, do you at least know what privacy is? I can't have you pop up at almost every single thing I do," knowing this sort of thing was going to be common, it made her annoyed about the fact that the deity wasn't going away anytime soon.

 **'Privacy? No, I don't think I know what it is. Maybe you could tell me more about it?'** Not needing to look at their face to see the expression, it was clear they were enjoying the situation, rubbing it in her face. **'Ooh, a party, what're you gonna wear?'**

"I haven't decided if I want to go," plopping onto the couch, she didn't want to have the Enchantress continuously go through every new thing Adaliya had out.

 **'He's cute,'** not knowing what was being referred to, it caused her to look around until she found them. Instead, she saw the top half of their body phased into the wall while their bottom half was on this side of the wall. **'And he's tall?! I wonder what it must be like to have that metal arm in b-,'** immediately hearing the words, she got up from the couch and pulled the deity their position in the wall.

"Nope, absolutely not. That's weird and I don't like him like that," finally pulling them through the wall, she used too much force, causing her to stumble back. She closed her eyes before the impact, let out a groan when her skin made contact with the floor and placed her left hand on the back of her head.

 **'You know-,'** as they began talking, the deity became close, too close. Instinctively scooting back until her back met a wall. **'I'm not trying to scare you, isn't it obvious?'** Although there was nothing remotely threatening about the situation, it never displaced the fear in her eyes.

"Doesn't matter. Remind me of how many times you've either changed my skin or all the times I've woken up with bruises and fresh wounds?" The entire idea of having a powerful creature hover over her at all times never sat right with her, but the reminder of all the borderline trauma she's gotten from the two really didn't help their situation.

 **'Is that really how you feel?'** Hearing a definite tone change in them, Adaliya could tell she messed up.

"That's not what I mean, it's just that adjusting to-," starting to realize what she'd done, she hoped there was a chance her words wouldn't hurt her completely.

**'Me taunting you from a little while ago wasn't considered taunting, was it? My apologies, it's just that adjusting to this sort of thing is difficult. From what I read a few days ago, it's been more of a "Host vs. Parasite" relationship, hasn't it?'**

"When did you have the time to read something like that?" Knowing if they answered the question, it would make them fall into her trap.

 **'It was last Wednesday,'** without thinking about her answer, the Enchantress picked up a book and mindlessly flipped through it.

"See? That's what I mean, you and Jessabelle need to set some warnings before you take over my body. I need to know if any of you are planning to do some weird shit, and if I don't know about it, it's not going to look good in front of others." Feeling some sort of touch come from her back, Adaliya quickly turned around to see the sexual creature.

 **"You called?"** Confusion seeped into her face when she heard Jess's words. **"What? You called my name, so I'm here. What's with the confused face?"** Sounding simple enough, there was a moment of silence between the three. **"Is it going to be nothing but utter silence or is there a reason you called me out here?"**

"You both need to let me know ahead of time when you decide to take over my body. There's been a major issue this past year: you two would take control of my body and not give me a warning." Knowing this was going to be a bit of a serious issue, it meant they had to get things in check or life would be dysfunctional.

 **'It's a new thing she wants to put in place.'** Blowing off the idea as if it was nothing, there was an issue with her tone of voice.

 **"Adaliya, tell me something: do you realize it's not always us who's controlling your body?"** Saying the words like it was supposed to put something into place, she looked at the two with confusion.

"I mean, it's gotta be one of you two, there's no other way it could be anyone else. You two were the ones that came out of the statues I broke." Pushing away any chance that anyone else was in her head, it didn't make sense about the situation.

 **'No, Adaliya. We're not the only ones in your head. You really haven't done much research about your species, have you? It's a shame, don't you think, Jessabelle?'** Now they were acting like she didn't exist, or that she was an object.

 **"Such a shame. If only there was a general source of accurate information a block from your home... _that you could walk to if you wanted to know._ "** Annoyance began seeping into her face, ones that showed how sick of the scene she was.

"You know what? Both of you can kiss my ass," with a wave of her hand, she made them disappear. Going to her room, Adaliya took off her pajamas and put on a black long sleeve shirt with jeans, tucking the shirt into her pants. Afterward, she grabbed a black overcoat and put it on.

Walking out of the apartment door, she saw James come out of his apartment as well. "Oh, hey Adaliya. Is everything okay?" Having a generous voice, she looked at him with befuddlement.

"I'm sorry?" She didn't know what he was talking about, and to be frank, she didn't know if he'd heard the conversation in full or if it was a portion of it.

"It sounded like something fell over earlier, I just wanted to make sure you were okay," he sounded considerate, which was enough for her to relax.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. It was just a few pots and pans," their little unspoken friendship they had was always the one thing the two enjoyed. Since he'd first moved in, she hadn't interacted with him, but that started changing when she recognized him after the "brown-sugar" thing.

"Where're you headed?" Trying to make small conversation, there was a moment where she thought about her destination, but it had a simple answer.

"To the library. As old-fashioned as it may sound, I've gotten a few books on my list I've been wanting to read." Walking over to the elevator with Bucky following, they both reached the lobby level button, causing them both to chuckle. "I got it," clicking the button, there was a tense silence in the air.

"I've been meaning to ask you something: are you free Friday?" Hearing the question, there was a moment where she had to think to herself about the answer.

"Yeah, I'll be free Friday," knowing Stark's party wasn't going to be until Saturday, it meant she had a chance to attend both events. 


	16. Chapter 16

☪

Friday rolled around a lot quicker than expected, meaning their date was tonight. Usually, she wouldn't be so nervous to go on a simple date with someone. This wasn't her first time, considering she's had multiple husbands throughout the years.

Something was different about him, however; she couldn't place it. She's never panicked about what outfit to wear, what shoes would look good with the outfit, or how her hair would look. It was a good thing she locked her hair a few years ago, so all she had to worry about was styling.

There was something she wanted to know, which was why she texted Barnes the following: "cute or comfortable?" Depending on his answer would help her to know what she'd need to wear. 

"Cute," was the response she'd gotten, to which she smiled before setting her phone down on her bed. Walking toward her closet, she looked for something she'd feel would match in an outfit. Finding one of her cashmere sweaters, she set the brown one onto the bed before looking for jeans to match.

Looking for a pair of brown boots, she found a pair that had the right shade to go with the shirt. Once she had everything set up, she began putting her clothes on, doing her makeup once everything was set on.

Styling her locks into a twin-bun with two hanging down, she made sure she had her phone on before walking out of her apartment. From there, she walked toward the elevator. Clicking the Lobby button, the doors were about to close, though a hand intercepted it.

The doors opened again, to which Bucky was on the other side of them. At first glance, he had on a leather jacket, a blue cotton v-neck shirt, and jeans. Somehow, it fits him, being a mix between cute and comfortable. "You look amazing," he spoke breathlessly.

"You look even better," she didn't know what to expect with the date, which was why she'd hoped it would be surprising. "Do you have an idea of where we're going?" She was interested in where the location would be.

"It's a surprise," Adaliya wasn't the type to do surprises, that much was clear, so it made no sense to her why she wasn't as annoyed. 

"Come on, you can't even let me know a little bit?" She wanted to know whether it was somewhere she could relax at, or if it was somewhere fancy. Her mind was racing with the different possibilities, which didn't help the fact she wasn't in control of the date.

"That would ruin the surprise," seeing as though she wasn't going to be getting an answer out of him, she left the topic alone. "And don't try anything to figure out where we're going, it won't work," once the elevator dropped to the lobby floor, Bucky stepped back to let her go first.

Accepting the virtue, she stepped off of the elevator first before glancing over her shoulder to see James following behind. Once he stepped toward her side, he offered his flesh arm, to which she accepted and giggled. "Haven't seen that move in a while," referring to his gesture, he just chuckled.

"What, do people not do this anymore?" Knowing that the times had changed since the thirties, she shook her head. 

"If men ever do, it's probably to walk someone down the aisle. Other than that, this gesture has been dead for centuries." She'd hoped that her talking wouldn't reveal how old she was, considering she wasn't prepared to tell him something like this, not yet.

"Well now I feel out of place," he chuckled awkwardly, leading them to where his car was. It was a fairly recent car, all things considered. "I'll try not to do it again."

"No no, it's adorable. I like the effort," hoping her words were assuring, she placed her right hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, you can do this as much as you'd like. You could even sweep me off my feet if you wanted."

Seeing as though he didn't know whether to take it literally or not, he unlocked his arm from her, which caught her attention. Confusion seeped onto her face, which changed to surprise when he used his metal arm to, _quite literally_ , sweep her off her feet. Carrying her bridal style, she held onto his shoulders for dear life. 

His eyes glossed over the look on her face, which made him laugh. "I thought you told me I could sweep you off your feet," he had an innocent tone, but he knew how to make her flustered by it.

"I didn't think you meant right now! A little warning next time? You picked me up like a pillow," she knew he could lift a lot but she was a little over two hundred pounds, she didn't know how to respond to this newfound information. "You can put me down, now."

Seeing as though he did just that, she adjusted her clothes as necessary. "A little warning would've been nice, Bucky. Come on, we have a date to get to, don't we?"

"I liked the look on your face, that flustered look," he was probably going to make fun of her, to which she used her left hand to lightly slap him on the shoulder. "Ow, what was that for?" He was still laughing, which made her scoff and roll her eyes playfully.

"Maybe next time, you let me know about it? You physically surprised me, so you should feel proud."

☪

When the two arrived at the location, Adaliya glanced at the title of the building. Safe to say, it wasn't a restaurant, it was an arcade. "I didn't know whether you were into arcade games or not," he was unsure about if she'd like it or not.

"I love arcade games, what are you talking about? I've been wanting to see what it's like in here, just never had time." She wanted to see what it looked like inside, which was why she walked toward the door. Watching her actions, Bucky walked toward the door and held it open for her.

Walking through the threshold, he followed behind her. "Come on, I wanna see if they have one of my favorite games," without thinking about it, she held onto his metal hand and began leading him through the building.

Staying silent for most of the way, she stopped when she found the ski-ball section. "I bet you I could win more points than you," not realizing she was holding onto his hand, she was starting to gain a competitive spirit.

"You're on," she let go of his hand, to which she glanced down at the metal limb before realizing she was holding onto it. Both of them just smiled at one another before realizing they had no card to play the games with. "Hold on, I'll be right back."

"Okay," she had her eyes fixed on the game, which meant she failed to notice some men in black and grey keeping an eye on her. Usually, getting the cards to play the game wouldn't take that long, so maybe it was something else. Watching as Bucky came back to where she was, he gave her one of the game cards.

"I got them, so here. If you don't hold up to your word, I get to choose the next game," it sounded like a fair deal, so she held a hand out to shake. Accepting the deal, both of them shook hands before sliding their cards to activate the game.

The balls rolled into the ball dispenser, to which they picked up their first one. "Three..." they both had their eyes set on which one they were going to shoot in. "Two..." having their arms ready, Bucky smirked, though Adaliya didn't see it. "One," they rolled their shots.

James got 20, Lia got 30, which wasn't where they were aiming, but it still set her score above hers. From there, neither of them needed a countdown, they just kept rolling until their cartridges were empty. When they were on their last, she glanced over to his score.

He was twenty behind, meaning one roll into the right hole would probably make him ahead. That was something she couldn't have, which was the reason she put more power behind her swing. Rolling her last ball, she watched as it fell into the '100' slot, causing her to glance at her score to see if it was real or not.

When he rolled his last ball, he got into the '50' slot, meaning he was 70 behind her score. Letting out a sigh of defeat, Bucky glanced between his score and hers. "Looks like you won this game," knowing that it was a game, she chuckled before genuinely smiling. 

"How about I go and look for another game while you stay here? I want it to be a surprise," he nodded as a response, which was enough for her to step away from him to go find another game. 

She weaved between crowds and groups of people, specifically because it was a busy night. Glancing for a specific game, she didn't find one that she wanted to play, not until her eyes landed on the punching bag. It was a test of strength, which was what she was more than willing to play against both of his arms.

Marking the spot in her mind, she retraced her steps to go back to the skeeball machines. However, the one thing that caught her eye was that Bucky was nowhere to be found. "Bucky?" She didn't see him, maybe he went to go get them drinks? It might've been a last-minute decision, which was why she rushed over to the bar.

"Excuse me, sir, have you seen a man with long hair, it was in a ponytail, and a leather jacket?" Hoping her mind wasn't wandering to the worst possible outcome, she wanted to see if he was maybe somewhere else in the building.

"He was the one with the metal prosthetic arm, right?" Seeing as though the man knew who she was talking about, her eyes lit up with a hope that he was still here. 

"Yeah, that's him," her gut was telling her one thing, her heart was telling her another thing. "So you've seen him, do you know where he might've gone?" 

"Yes," now something was wrong, and it was foolish of her to not have noticed it before. Peeking toward the mirror behind the man, she could see more men were gathering around. The lights in the room started flickering, catching her attention.

Glancing toward the ceiling, she sighed before realizing what she had to do. Placing her hand against the surface of the table, she closed her eyes. During the interval where the lights were off, she muttered below her breath, "Enchantress."

A heavily runed hand crawled from her sleeve, the fingers of the runed hand intertwined with Adaliya's, just before the hand flipped over.

The darkness surrounding the Enchantress' figure set a mood in the room that made everyone cower with fear. Some people thought about running, which she couldn't have. Instead, she cast a spell that made everyone proceed to their games as normal. It was out of their control, which was a bit of a showcase of her power.

Looking toward the men in the room, those who were still advancing, she played with the chains in her hand. She teleported, which looked more like her molecules were separated and dispersed throughout the room.

Teleporting through the flickering room, the Enchantress began to slaughter them, one by one. Between each person who died, the lights would flicker on. This action was intentional, as she made sure they couldn't see her while the lights were on. 

All of them fell, one by one, to which the people under the spell were oblivious to the full situation. The lights flickered back to normal, which were originally flickering from her magic. Placing her hand onto the table once more, the deity muttered, "Adaliya."

Adaliya's dark-skinned hand crawled from the wrist, to which their fingers intertwined once more. Their hand flipped once again, to which Adaliya was back in control of her body. She wasn't as scared, considering this wasn't the first time she'd given the power to one of the others.

Walking out of the building, stumbling from disorientation, rather, she realized all of the people inside of the arcade were under some sort of spell. Once she stepped outside, the spell vanished, to which she sighed, crossed her arms and mustered enough strength for her to teleport back home.

**_Gifs used._ **


End file.
